Supreme Court has more breaks than working days

Lakhs of cases pending...so many Indians waiting for years to get justice,
but even after 60 years of independance, Indian judiciary sit on a high
pedestal and lives the colonial life style. There is no judicial reforms, no
awareness of the problems facing the people.
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Supreme Court has more breaks than working days

IANS
Published: November 11, 2007, 23:54

New Delhi: Ever wondered what is common between school-going children and the high priests of judiciary? Saturdays, Sundays and "a lot of fun-days", feel a section of lawyers.

As per the Supreme Court's calendar for 2007, out of the 365 days a year, the Supreme Court has only 176 working days. The remaining 189 days - more than half the year - are holidays.

They include 104 Saturdays and Sundays, nearly two-and-a-half months of summer vacation, a fortnight of winter vacation besides several other offs, ranging from a day to a week. And all this in the backdrop of a huge backlog of cases.

"Even the highest US court, where individual judges do not have to adjudicate more than 150 cases a year, does not have more than three to four months of holidays," said senior advocate K.K. Venugopal.

I don't think Supreme Court people have a heart to complete the pending cases. If they are taking more breaks instead of working, it shows that there is no accountability. There should be a system by which any judge, either from the apex court or lower court, should be elected with a power to recall them. They should also be held accountable for errors and typing mistakes in their judgments and taken to task by the people. Since we are living in a democracy ( by the people, for the people, of the people), it is high time that we set decent standards in Judiciary for other countries to follow.

Its common that every human needs some time to spare for himself, so holidays are not a problem, what about Lok Adalats, they are making things faster , right?.... India is now under condition only because of judiciary. just wait to see the fruits of it. lets have some patience

And just to add hear, Judges do not have to disclose their income to Income Tax dept. I heard that now a days Govt.is thinking to impose this on Judges too but don't you think that Govt. is too much soft on them .. like giving a bunch of holidays.. then no restriction about ITR etc..

No one should be above the law.
All are equal in front of the law.

The same above principles should apply to judges too.
Judges should be made answerable and accountable.

Right now they are enjoying outrageous protection and immunity.
Almost scandalous by any measure.
There is no system to check their behaviour and actions.

Exactly. A judge can get away by giving out a judgment full of spelling mistakes and even mistakes in the construction of sentences. Deplorably horrible, there is no end to this kind of atrocity. Nobody cares and no one dare ask what is wrong with the whole system afraid of risking their lives with a fear that they would be charged under the contempt of court. We have made judiciary so sacrosanct that the Judges are given a state of Godliness and they feel that God is their fellow being.

Why am I not surprised? It is no wonder that cases pile up and the genuine justice seekers seem to be waging a losing battle. A really lose-lose situation for those in need of justice!

While going through this thread i have come across two or three misconceptions. First, spelling mistakes in judgments, Supreme Court Judgments are brilliant pieces of application of mind, i will advice you to go to www.judis.nic.in and find spelling mistakes there. Also, what is reported and published are published by various publishers like AIR or SCC or SCALE so the errors if any are there, it is because of them. Second they are also liable to tax under the head salary. Third and most important holidays. you would be surprised that the number of backlogs in Supreme Court is very less and most of these backlogs are because of few scheming lawyers, who have expertise in asking for dates. A judge goes through a 200-300 page brief and the issue raised is given 2-3 minutes as he because of his trained mind is able to decide on the issues on which the case hinges. As far as holidays are concerned. Even in modern economy 5 days a week is a norm, so why not it should be for the Supreme Court. There is a bench even during holidays. The lower courts work on saturdays. The primary reason why justice is delayed in India is because of the fact that the the cases come in distorted form to the Supreme Court.

Its easy to blame the judges and the system, but we forget that we are the roots of this system. If there is corruption it is only because corruption is in the general psyche of the masses. Power to recall based on the premise that people make right choices, have we since last 61 years chosen the leaders we really want to choose. No same will happen with judges, at least we should spare judiciary from mobocracy.

Link for supreme court calender http://www.supremecourtofindia.nic.in/new_s/cal.htm.

Media is the biggest entertainment provider now a days, please don't trust them at least on serious issues. Check the link.

I personally know a case where an NRI in US was prevented from getting his house by the relatives, who was allowed to stay there , rent free, as a measure of kindness from him.

When he wanted the house back, they filed a criminal false case against him saying he hired goondas to threaten them. The munsif court accepted their petition and issued notices to him to answer the false charge. It took him 2 years and nearly a lak of rupees just to deal with the false case. In that process, the case was adjourned six times and finally when it came to hearing , two years later, it was dismissed in 2 minutes and the occupants had to move out.

By filing this false case, and causing repeated adjournments, the relatives managed to get another two years of rent free accommodation. They did not pay a single cent except pay the crooked lawyer some money to grease corrupt court officials to keep adjourning the case.

I am told this type of false case delay racket is widely prevalent in India. And there are so many crooked lawyers who advice clients to use this loophole to secure unfair benefits from the Indian legal system.

That is exactly my point. Its the lower judiciary which is not performing properly. And most of the delay is caused by scheming lawyers.See law is a dead letter until interpreted.And the problem is interpretation depends on the skills of the person interpreting, which is used by such elements. Add to the prevalent bribe culture which hampers every department in India and you know the result. India is a thorough corrupt country. A person taking bribe in his office cries foul when same is demanded from him in another department. The judiciary, executive, the legislature are all corrupt because people in general are corrupt.

lazy... bring them to justice