Though there are persuasive arguments on both sides, the discussion on reducing or scrapping vacations or court holidays can only take place once the courts are functioning at their full sanctioned strength.
Vacancies lead to burden on the existing judges, who have to work more to compensate.
When he was Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, Justice Dipankar Datta perhaps summed up a judge’s predicament while responding to requests made for accommodating more urgent hearings.
“Where are the judges? Every month, every 15 days we are losing one of our colleagues (due to retirement)… Review meetings say “ask your judges to sit on Saturday.” They are already overburdened, they have to sit till 7-8 pm everyday, on Saturdays. I cannot put more burden on my brother judges”, the now Supreme Court judge had bemoaned.
Source: Barandbench
