No vacation benches says CJI

I spoke just now with a senior judge of the Supreme Court and discussed the matter mentioned below.

There is a lot of criticism in the social media over the CJI’s recent statement that there will be no vacation benches of the Supreme Court during the winter vacations. Today, Friday, was the last working day of the Court, when it closed for the winter vacations, and it will reopen on 2nd January.

It is true that vacation benches in the Court are only constituted for the summer vacations for hearing urgent matters. But during the 2 week winter vacations if there is an extremely matter which cannot wait for the reopening of the Court e.g. where demolition of a house is imminent, the party can approach the Chief Justice to constitute a bench for this purpose, but he has to satisfy the Chief Justice that the matter is so urgent that it cannot await reopening of the Court.

I told the Senior Judge to ask the Chief Justice to issue a clarification to this effect, so that the wrong impression may be removed. He said he will do it.