Shashwati Chowdhury
Published on: July 12, 2022 at 19:44 IST
In a single day, the Supreme Court churned a record-breaking 44 judgments, a feat unparalleled of in recent past for the top court. The Supreme Court judges issued a staggering number of orders on the day the court reopened following a summer break that lasted from May 23 to July 10.
The 44 cases involved a wide variety of issues, including the examination of extradition agreement, domestic laws, criminal appeals, civil disputes, banking and commercial issues, cases of contempt of court, and contract enforcement. Justice MR Shah gave 20 of the 44 judgments.
Vacations offer time for research and judgement writing, according to former judges of the top court. These judgments’ logic and reasoning serve as precedents for similar cases in both constitutional and district courts.
Justice V. Gopala Gowda, another ex-Supreme Court justice, observed, “Vacation time for judges is to rejuvenate and spend time on research.”
While describing his personal experience, saying, “After summer vacation, important judgements were made by me involving the validity of legal statutes and conflicting constitutional provisions, the evidence itself ran into 30 volumes.”
The former judge said that because the Supreme Court is the highest court in the country and that each law it makes has serious repercussions, it is an “onerous” job. The judges understanding this responsibility engage in a thorough understanding of the law, comparing international law, legal provisions, resolving conflict of fact, and examining which law applies in a particular case.
The judges, though, underlined that there is more to it. Former CJI Balakrishnan noted, “During holidays, stenographers are available to take dictation of the orders/judgments as and when required.”
Giving judgments necessitates a lot of dictation and correction. It is a difficult job rather than a routine chore. Law clerks are more helpful while they are on vacation, continued Justice Gowda.
The Supreme Court does take periodic breaks during the year, but these are brief (two weeks for Christmas and one for Diwali), providing less time for preparing judgments.
“The break in December is short. It can hardly be described as a vacation.”
Former CJI Justice Balakrishnan gave such remark adding that it’s important to keep up the trend of delivering big judgements in order to make up for the valuable judicial time lost due to the Covid epidemic.
