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The Advocates Association, Bengaluru (AAB) recently addressed a letter to the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, Abhay Sreeniwas Oka, requesting that working hours at the lower Courts be reverted to the earlier timings of the District and Taluka Courts to ease the burden of lower Court lawyers.
The letter informs that the net effect of the change in timings has increased the working hours of the Court by 30 minutes and has reduced the lunch time by 15 minutes in a day.
However, the AAB says that this modification in the working hours of Courts has caused strain and pressure for advocates with respect to managing both their court as well as chamber work. In this regard, the letter notes,
The Advocates are put to greater hardship and severe stress. The Advocates are finding it very difficult cope up with court works as well as their office/chamber work. The changed timings is very difficult to manage by the Advocates practicing before the subordinate courts. Hence it is very much necessary to revert back to the earlier timings of the Court working hours.
Advocates Association, Bengaluru
The letter signed off by AAB President, AP Ranganatha, its General Secretary and Treasurer further states,
"Lawyers are always in stress with workload. Increasing the Court timing is not helping them. Also, these lower Court lawyers find it hard to cope up with Court work and also to prepare for their upcoming cases the next day.”
On December 30, last year, a notification was issued, modifying the working hours of the lower Courts such as District and Taluka Courts as “First Session from 11:00 am – 2:00 pm, lunch break from 2:00 pm - 2:45 pm, and the second session of the Court starts from 2:45 – 5:45 pm.”
The rescheduled working hours were given effect from January 1 of this year, the AAB letter informs.
By their letter, the AAB has now requested CJ Oka to restore the previous Court timings for the benefit of the Advocates and litigants at large.
[Read the AAB letter here]