SA Bobde to decide on SC summer vacation soon

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India SA Bobde will take a call in three-four days on whether to cancel the court’s summer holidays to make up for the disruption in court work due to Covid-19, people aware of the matter said on Friday after a senior advocate wrote a letter to the CJI seeking cancellation of the vacation, which is due from May 18 to July 6.

A day earlier, the Delhi High Court had decided to cancel its summer holidays, due from June 1-30. Many other high courts are expected to follow suit. A decision will be taken regarding the summer holidays of the top court by the CJI after consultations with other judges and the health ministry, said people in the legal fraternity.

Senior advocate Dinesh Dwivedi said in his letter to the CJI that the summer vacation should be cancelled to make up for court days lost due to the virtual closure of the court over the pandemic. Almost all courts are functioning on a skeletal staff and are sitting intermittently to only deal with matters of utmost importance. These include cases involving imminent execution, demolition or cases involving fundamental rights of citizens and corona-related public interest litigations. Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) members also began debating whether the existing disruption of court work can be treated as the court functioning in the summer vacation, and treated as such.