Valiant Vacations, Jarring Justice?

It seems that the Indian Judiciary is facing the same fate as SBI on its ‘vacations and lunch breaks’!

The urgency of the Supreme Court showed in the recent St. Stephens College squabble over its admission policy under CUET and the affected aspirant students catching a breath in a jiffy, is something that should be underlined before you begin to read.

Recall the incidents: Justice RM Lodha had expressed his intentions with the required math for courts to function 365 days a year. In 2017, 3 constitution benches functioned during the summer vacations under the then CJI J.S. Khehar, which was termed as ‘historic’, a progressive step away from the relics of the colonial past. The then CJI NV Ramana in a light hearted comment said, that owing to the little time that he gets to spend with his family, there might be a day where his grandchildren will refuse to recognise him. The Supreme Court these days very actively takes up matters listed as “urgent” (which remains undefined) and further directs High Courts to take up pending matters early. The Union Minister of Law & Justice Kiren Rijiju’s report on the pendency, where it was categorically mentioned that the Supreme Court has 71,411, out of which 56,365 are civil matters and 15,076 are criminal matters, as on August 2, 2022, are all interconnected facts and matrix.

Before you entangle yourselves with the incidents, it becomes quite pertinent to note that the “long” vacations that the Supreme Court, High Courts, District Courts go on for, has become a subject of rebuttal and constant dissension. People with various backgrounds have started showing strong resentment through regular PILs (Public Interest Litigation). And more often than not, the vacations are endorsed as the reason for pendency of cases before the Courts.

The problem is not the problem, but the lack of interest in finding a solution to the problem is! For instance we know there is a pendency which runs into millions, we know the number is huge, we know it would require more than double the time that is being spent now, but do we know the procedure? Or do we just blame on anything that we can see, or collectively gather from the cumulative facts that we perceive?

The pendency is not necessarily a causality of vacations, it could be (highly unlikely), but the otherwise process involved is so catastrophic that despite a hearing and a ‘seemingly effective’ decision arrived at by the Court, it falls short in academia and justice. For instance, in almost every motor accident claim despite the set standard guidelines on multipliers for compensation, through judgments in Sarla Verma and Pranay Sethi, litigants always feel the compensation so granted is not justified. Therefore, aggrieved by it, they approach a higher court (or a forum), and in most of the cases the higher court ends up doubling the compensation, and in a few sometimes triple. Take another instance, Arnesh Kumar vs State of Bihar has crisp standards for arrest to be made in exceptional circumstances, but the relevance in the applicability remains shaky. The second reason would be a shortage of resources, a dearth of judges proportional to the population.

The shiny new buildings of the High Courts (let alone Supreme Court) which get lighted with each festival, greenery and well maintained halls and walls, and the dilapidated condition of the buildings, common toilets (if at all a toilet) and infrastructure of the subordinate judiciary, speaks volumes again.

'Vacations' how spent

The judgments/orders we see, sometimes make all efforts to dodge reading, look for alternative to read short summaries, are usually what occupies the entire term of vacations. The usual work that we see, with judges sitting on the dais, merrily hearing parties and joyfully pronouncing verdicts, is not really what happens behind the curtains. the collected data, evidences, submissions, contentions, basically the collected album of the case has to be read again for semblance. Judges have administrative work too apart from the judicial work.

Writing or rather drafting a judgment is like writing a book to decide for the lives of the people it absolutely and remotely touches upon. Where every word will be hounded by many, and rightly so, but the ramifications of interpretation are huge, which we often forget to acknowledge. Writing a judgment or an order is not an usual everyday writing process. It is not like a usual book that provides “10 ways to make you successful” or “20 ways to attract your partner” or “30 reasons why you aren't getting married”. It is a well thought of, adequately reasoned, deeply pondered over written script (sometimes a libretto), with a perfect blend of words and intentions while being in absolute consonance with the law. It is an art, and art takes time. An art not to be kept at museums, but rather to shape your existence with meaningful rights otherwise guaranteed.

Judgments in Kesavananda Bharathi ran for 703 pages, in SP Gupta for 830 pages, Ram Janmabhoomi for 1034 pages, just to name a few. In fact, to quote a few lines from the (Ram Janmabhoomi) judgment to give you a glimpse of the daunting and gigantic task of the Court, “...This Court is tasked with the resolution of a dispute whose origins are as old as the idea of India itself. The events associated with the dispute have spanned the Mughal empire, colonial rule and the present constitutional regime. Constitutional values form the cornerstone of this nation and have facilitated the lawful resolution of the present title dispute through forty-one days of hearings before this Court. The dispute in these appeals arises out of four regular suits which were instituted between 1950 and 1989. Before the Allahabad High Court, voluminous evidence, both oral and documentary was led, resulting in three judgements running the course of 4304 pages”, read the initial lines.

Comparative Narrative

To delve deep into the functioning and drawing a parallel to the Supreme Court with its counterparts in other jurisdictions, let us examine two setups viz., United Kingdom (where we derived this practice from) and the United States of America, from which we get highly influenced every now and then

The UK Supreme Court functions in 4 divided terms, where in between the terms is a gap (vacation). Their first term begins in October where Michaelmas term started from Monday 3 October 2022 to Wednesday 21 December 2022, Hilary term will begin from Wednesday 11 January 2023 to Wednesday 5 April 2023, Easter term from Tuesday 18 April 2023 to Friday 26 May 2023, and Trinity term from Tuesday 6 June 2023 to Monday 31 July 2023.

While the US Supreme Court has lesser vacations but number of Court sittings are far less than India. The Supreme Court of India hears oral arguments on a daily basis while the other jurisdictions have specific dates on which it attends to the same. One thing should be noted that the number of days of vacation and the number of days the Court sits for, are two absolutely different digits.

The actual could-be-problem

The agitation on the vacation may actually not be a problem with the vacation per se, but the strategic duration on which it is ‘enjoyed’ or rather ‘utilised’ for preparing and studying. For instance Dusshera precedes Diwali, which is subsequently followed by Parewa, Gowardhan Pooja (others refer it as Jamghat), Bhai Dooj. Now, it would be a hard pill to swallow to place the same kind of expectations on any other industry, office (both private and public), shop or firm, to grant the same. Under no circumstances would you be ‘allowed’ to celebrate all three together, no matter how relevant or not. Human Resources of Private firms witness a massive influx of leave applications from various departments, where only a few god’s own children manage to secure a leave, while others compensate for them.

And it's not only Diwali, any other festival that you want to celebrate based on your religious beliefs or general fondness.

Keeping that picture in front, and imagining the otherwise ‘correctly placed’ vacation of the courts on the horizon, the need for such vacations will always be put under scrutiny to be dissected. For very obvious reasons you would say, kids are going to school, teachers are going to school, IAS, IPS and the league, Ministers, Journalists are all working, why the privilege of festivities only to a few then? It is absolutely correct that judges have other duties and tasks to do apart from the judicial work, but it would be a little demeaning to say out aloud that there is no other profession that demands or deserve long vacations.

To put a brief halt to the discussion, would you want your matter, be it any aspect, or let us say bail, to be heard by an unrested Judge, who has been wanting to go on leave, but couldn’t and is overburdened, has burnt all her energy while working for additional hours? Reading the law, knowing the law and interpreting the law are three characteristics, which requires expertise in sobriety. What we may think as verbose may actually be vital, not only for vanity but for virtuoso.