Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai made headlines on Wednesday with a candid observation that stirred the legal community: lawyers, not just judges, bear responsibility for the mounting backlog in the judiciary. During a hearing where a lawyer requested their matter be taken up post the summer break, the Chief Justice — seated beside Justice Augustine George Masih — firmly but pointedly remarked, “The first five judges are sitting through the vacation and continuing to work, yet we are blamed for the backlog. In reality, it is the lawyers who are unwilling to work during the vacations.”
The statement came not just as a reprimand but as a reflection of the growing frustration within the judiciary over the unequal burden they shoulder during court recesses. It also coincides with a notable shift in court culture: for the first time, the Supreme Court has rolled out a more intensive vacation schedule from May 26 to July 13, 2024 — branding it as a period of “partial court working days.”
Gone are the days of a skeleton court with only two benches manned by junior judges. This year, up to five benches, including those led by the Chief Justice and other senior justices like Suryakant, Vikram Nath, J.K. Maheshwari, and B.V. Nagarathna, will be in session. The court registry will also remain open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays, marking a determined step towards maintaining judicial momentum.
At its core, the Chief Justice’s remarks were a call to the legal fraternity — a reminder that access to justice is a shared responsibility. While judges have now committed to working through what was once a period of rest, the expectation is that lawyers too must rise to the occasion. After all, justice delayed is justice denied — and tackling delays is not the burden of one arm of the legal system alone.
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