Lawyers skip vacation work, judiciary gets backlog blame: CJI B R Gavai

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice B R Gavai Wednesday said lawyers don't want to work during vacation but the judiciary is blamed for the backlog of cases .

A bench of CJI B R Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih got miffed when a lawyer urged listing of a petition after summer vacation. "The first five judges are sitting through the vacation and continuing to work, yet we are blamed for the backlog. In reality, it is lawyers who are unwilling to work during the vacations," the CJI said.

Recently, SC issued a notification on the benches that will function during the upcoming summer vacation, rechristened as "partial court working days ", from May 26 to July 13. Significantly, there will be two to five vacation benches sitting during partial court working days and even top five judges, including the CJI, will be holding courts during this period.

Earlier, there used to be only two vacation benches during the summer vacation.