Chennai: Contending that the colonial practice of continuing summer vacation for the high court infringes on the fundamental right of the people to get speedy justice, an advocate has approached the Madras high court to set aside the notification issued by the Registrar General declaring summer vacation for this year. The PIL filed by advocate K Shyam Sunder is likely to come up for hearing on May 22.
According to Shyam Sunder, the concept of summer vacation was introduced in the high courts during the time when English judges who could not bear the heat in summer were on duty. The same should have been reviewed after the establishment of the high courts under Article 215 of the Constitution in each state.
Nowadays, most superior courts are air-conditioned and the chambers and cars provided to judges are also air-conditioned. In view of this technological advancement, the custom of observing long summer vacations because of severe heat condition has lost its relevance. Summer was no more a challenge today to the class of people who were part of the justice delivery system.
At any time, litigants were interested in early result of their cases and nothing more. Long summer vacations accompanied by other short vacations and number of holidays in courts were some of the root causes for the delay in disposal of cases. The custom of observing en bloc vacations infringes on the fundamental right of the people to get speedy justice and violates Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution, he added.
He said the colonial practice of continuing the summer vacations even after a country became independent and even after the adoption of the constitution was without any legal authority. This assumes significance in the light of the mounting of arrears of 5 lakh cases. There was no provision in the high court rules or in the constitution to close the court for more than a month, thereby depriving the citizens of their right to approach the court for violation of fundamental rights, he added.
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