Legal system exists for litigants. In reality, however, this does not appear to be true. People taking recourse to the legal system wait for number of years to get justice. Sometimes, people die also without getting justice while their cases are pending in the court. The right of speedy justice, now considered to be a fundamental right, has proved itself to be an illusion. What may be reasons for this state of affairs? Apart from procedural bottlenecks and other factors like adjournments leading to delay in disposal of cases, number of holidays and custom of observing en bloc summer vacations in high courts play an important role in occurrence and aggravation of this problem. It appears that the custom of observing long summer vacations dates back to the British rule of India. In those days, one of the reasons for summer vacations was the hot climate condition of India during summer. Summers in India were unbearable for the British people because there were no air-conditioners, coolers and refrigerators. The British people, therefore, used to go back to England or hill stations during summers and used to return only after the heat subsided. Now a days most of the courts are air-conditioned with uninterrupted power supply and the chambers and cars provided to judges are also air-conditioned.

Someone stated that the judges are working under tremendous pressure and need vacations to refresh themselves. The Doctors are also working under tremendous pressure. Are they given long vacations. Their relaxation and refreshing is more important as their working is a question of life and death for the patience. Any wrong decision may cause death of the patients.

The custom of observing en bloc vacations infringes the fundamental right of speedy justice and violates Article 14 (Equality before law or equal protection of law) and 21 (Right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution of India. The judges can be allowed study leave but whole court should not be stopped from functioning. In fact the vacations in the higher judiciary may be curtailed by at least 10-15 days and court working hours may be extended by at least half an hour.

The colonial practice of continuing the summer vacations even after 68 years of independence and after adoption of our Constitution is without any legal authority. The same should have been reviewed after establishment of the high courts under Article 215 of the Constitution in each state. There is no provision in the High Court rules or in the Constitution of India to close the court for long ‘summer vacations’, thereby depriving the citizens of their fundamental right to approach the court for grievance solving. Further, when subordinate civil and criminal courts can function during most of summer period, it is unfair to extend such a benefit to supreme court and high courts only. If judges observe vacation in rotation, it would give some relief to the people seeking justice. We need to remember 'Justice delayed is justice denied' and that 'Charity begins at home'. I hope all stakeholders would look into such issues. more