“I am not going to attend court on Saturdays. Unless it is a habeas corpus petition, I will not go,” Senior Advocate Kamal Nayan Choudhury told Bar & Bench earlier this month. .Choudhury, 64, has been an advocate for about 39 years and is considered a fierce Bar leader. He is also the President of the Gauhati High Court Bar Association.However, his statement stood in contrast to what transpired at the High Court on February 7, when the Court held its first working Saturday this year. This followed the Bar Association’s consent after the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court said there was no other way.Choudhury’s position reflects the growing divide between the Bar and the Bench over Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant’s proposal to introduce at least two working Saturdays a month in High Courts across India. .While the High Courts of Delhi, Rajasthan, Manipur and Gauhati have gone ahead with its implementation, Bar bodies in various parts of the country - including Kerala, Delhi and Karnataka - have passed resolutions against the move.Bar & Bench spoke to Bar leaders across different High Courts about the proposal to have two working Saturdays. All of them were clear that the move would not reduce the backlog, but would instead lead to delays in decision-making and poorer drafting of judgments.They said the proposal was mere grandstanding and would ultimately lead to burnout.Read what they think in their own words..Sacchin Puri, Vice-President of Delhi High Court Bar Association.I don't think this is a step in the right direction. The Bar is really disturbed with the proposal. They are all feeling extra pressure at this point of time. Even government counsel are not happy with this. Vacation is not really a vacation; lawyers still go to offices. You are only increasing the pressure. I hope this will be done away with.One can understand if it is a part-heard matter, but to make it a regular working day, I am sorry, is not the answer. Judges sit in court till 5 PM. The lawyers have to go back and prepare for the next day. Unfortunately, the public and the government do not see this. I do not know any judge who goes back before 8 PM. You have 60-100 matters listed before any court everyday. The orders have to be corrected and signed, then uploaded. It is not easy reading and correcting.The young Bar members and seniors take up arbitration, tribunal and district or trial court work on Saturdays. They will be unable to take up this work if Saturdays are made working. The direct result is that we will look at adjournments. Young lawyers have to draft their plaint, written statements, petition on Saturdays.Due to this, the quality of judgments will go down. While everyone thinks there is a holiday on Saturday and we are enjoying life, judges and lawyers are working. Government offices also don't work on Saturdays. I don't know why lawyers are made to work on Saturdays..The only way to reduce pendency is appointment of more judges. We have 16 vacancies in the current strength of 60. We are working at 44. We need more judges.Sacchin Puri.Rakesh Pande, President of Allahabad High Court Bar Association.It is going to affect the quantity of justice as well as the quality of justice.Rakesh Pande.This is an unworkable solution, basically grandstanding. It may appear something very good in print, but it is going to affect the quantity of justice as well as the quality of justice. Saturdays are not vacation for us. We spend Saturdays and Sundays preparing those briefs which are complicated, upgrading ourselves. Judges use Saturdays or Sundays for writing judgments in matters where judgments are reserved. On a working day, you hardly have any time. I'm back home by 5 PM, then I take a cup of tea and I'm back in my office at 6 PM. From 6 PM to 9 PM, I keep working again. Again, in the morning, I get up and work from 7:30 AM to 9 AM before I leave for Court. People think that putting in more hours would dissolve the pendency. Putting in more hours is going to be counterproductive. The problem is that to a layperson, you think that more hours means more work. Here, it is not more hours because the hours that you're taking away by opening the court, in fact, are working hours for us.This is something unworkable. Basically, you are seeking short-term glory, not realising the long-term consequences of an act. .Sartej Singh Narula, President of Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association.Endeavour of the Chief Justice is correct; he is not wrong in what he is doing. He himself is a hard-working person, he can work constantly without rest. Others are not like him, that is where the problem is.Sartej Singh Narula.Lawyers usually work on Saturdays, most of them go to district courts or meet their clients. Sundays are for preparing the cases listed on Monday. If they don’t get a single day break, they will burn out. Even judges need a break. They start working in the morning, deal with 200 cases in a day; so they have to sign 200 orders and read them too. Suppose 20-30 cases are disposed of, they have to read those judgments also. It means they go back at 8 or 9 PM everyday and then probably take dinner and sit back again to read the next day’s cases, at least urgent ones.If there is a bigger case left, dictations are given over the weekend. When will they have time to take a little bit of rest? Even machinery gets hot working 24 hours. It will end up burning down the entire system. I don’t think it will achieve anything fruitful. CJI is doing this with a good intention. Probably we can have less holidays. Summers are closed for one month, we can close for 20 or 15 days.They can have a system of listing bigger cases with the consent of lawyers on Saturday. If both sides are consenting, then disposal can increase. Otherwise, people will take adjournments and not come. .Dhanya Kumar Jain, President of Madhya Pradesh High Court Bar Association.No lawyer is agreeable to the proposal. The lawyers are already burdened with work, they need the weekend for pending work. Saturday is usually set for meeting the clients and discussing the cases. Saturday and Sunday is for reading and going through documents, which may run into 1000s of pages. It takes a lot of effort. Similar is the situation with judges. Some 100-200 cases are listed with a judge here. How many files will the judge go through during a night?Even our listed cases aren’t taken up due to paucity of time. We need 80 judges but we have 40. There is a daily anguish that cases are listed but not heard. The judges say they can list even 300, but how many will be heard? A judge today is not ready to hear. As soon as we start, they say ‘no, no, end it already’. If we don’t tell the proper case facts…or if the judge starts hearing one case, he is not able to hear other cases. .Every new CJI says something. They don’t have working Saturdays; even working hours are less in Supreme Court...A lawyer would get money when a case is decided, but today, it is difficult to even get a case listed.Dhanya Kumar Jain.Prashant Relekar, President of Advocates Association of Western India, Bombay High Court.The legal profession operates through a multi-stage preparatory process that is both rigorous and time-intensive. A lawyer must meet clients, gather and refine instructions, draft pleadings, incorporate revisions, conduct extensive legal research and engage in deep analysis before presenting a matter before the Court. This challenge is compounded by the fact that many High Court Benches today function from as early as 9:30 AM and often continue until 7:30 or even 8:00 AM, with some Judges foregoing their lunch breaks entirely. For most advocates, this means being in court from morning till evening, five days a week. Saturdays and Sundays therefore remain the only viable days to meet clients, prepare briefs and complete research. Taking away two Saturdays would seriously, and in many cases adversely, affect an advocate’s ability to prepare effectively.Instead of expanding the court calendar, more effective and sustainable solutions lie in targeted structural reforms, such as filling all judicial vacancies, appointing ad hoc judges to handle bail and other high-volume categories, strengthening mediation and arbitration mechanisms to divert suitable matters and improving listing practices and procedural efficiencies..Judicial stress and burnout are already significant concerns in the present system, with both judges and advocates operating under exceptionally high cognitive and time pressures.Prashant Relekar.Shrikrishna U Chaudhari, Secretary of Advocates Association of High Court of Bombay (Aurangabad Bench).In my view, having working Saturdays for all High Courts is a welcome and necessary step. If implemented uniformly and in a planned manner, it can help in better utilisation of judicial time and contribute to reducing case pendency, particularly for short and routine matters.While concerns regarding work-life balance are valid, these can be addressed through proper rostering and support systems. Ultimately, timely justice is a collective responsibility and additional working Saturdays, along with administrative and infrastructural reforms, can strengthen the justice delivery system..Kamal Nayan Choudhury, Gauhati High Court Bar Association.I'm not going to attend court on Saturday. Let me make it very clear. Whatever may happen, happens. I'm not going to do it. Now at this 64 years, I cannot change my habits.Kamal Nayan Choudhury.We had an extraordinary general meeting the other day where the general view was against it. The Chief Justice then called all the judges and the executive committee of the Bar, where we expressed our opposition to this move. But then Chief Justice said that since it is going to happen pan-India, we are therefore going ahead with it. My feeling is it won't be a very fruitful exercise...I don't know what the outcome would be. It would be a very casual working day. Everybody would in a hurry to go to at the end of the first half.A better alternative is you could have cut down on some holidays. Now we have a procedure of 210 working days. That can be increased to say 215 days or 220 days. .Advocate Peeyus A Kottam, Kerala High Court Advocates' Association.The government itself now is attempting to reduce the working days to five.Peeyus A Kottam.The Association and its members are not against speedy disposal or doing the best for disposal of cases. But making Saturdays working days is practically impossible. In the Kerala High Court, when Saturday is declared as a working day, normally 12 to 15 judges will be on leave. We are in agreement with the suggestion of increasing working hours. In support of that, we are proposing that instead of 10:15 AM, let the working hours start at 10 AM. Let the working hours be started at 10 and instead of closing at 4.30 PM, let it be 4.45 PM..Dilip Singh Udawat, President of Rajasthan High Court Lawyers Association, Jodhpur.In other professions, a person can take leave anytime but when a case is listed, an advocate has to attend the court. Where is the time for personal life?Dilip Singh Udawat.Hearing of cases on Saturdays will affect the quality of judgments. A judge may be able to write small judgments or orders but when will they write big judgments? It will affect the efficiency of Bar and Bench. We need more judges. There can be other ways - reduce vacations by some days. Working hours can be increased. Those who think that lawyers are looking for holidays, they need to understand that those practicing in High Courts, including the government counsel, are always working. .Nirmal K Kotwal, President of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court Bar Association.It is a very welcome step. We have consented to it. We have fewer working days - 210 in a calendar year. Pendency is going up. People are suffering because of it. We are thus cooperating for disposal of cases.However, we can’t make it compulsory. If somebody wants a case listed, the parties can consent to that. Normally, adjournments are opposed by both the parties. Adjournments can be taken for Saturday with consent of parties. The Court can decide cases where there is consent of parties.It may not help much, but 5-10 percent case pendency can be reduced if we sincerely work on Saturdays. Lawyers may be opposing because they go to trial courts to argue cases, but when we think of a bigger picture, I think it is a welcome step. It would rather be difficult for judges. It is a burden on them because they have to hear cases, decide the cases. What happens to the cases they heard across the week?.If the Bench is cooperating, then I don’t think Bar should have difficulty in doing it. Nirmal K Kotwal.Hamender Singh Chandel, President of Himachal High Court Bar Association.Ours is a hilly state and offices are at faraway places, away from the main city...We don’t have much pendency. We have the best disposal rates. Our criminal appeals of 2023-24 are being heard right now, unlike other big High Court where appeals of 2008, 2009 and 2010 are pending. .Prithvirajsinhji Jadeja, Vice-President of Gujarat High Court Advocates' Association.Even if you keep Sundays working, it will not help with pendency.Prithvirajsinhji Jadeja.The Gujarat Bar is very clear that Saturdays working is out of question because clients from all over travel to Ahmedabad. This is the only day the lawyers get the chance to interact with the clients.The biggest problem is with appointment of judges. Once the complete strength is there, then you can have quick and fast disposal. Till the time 30-40 percent vacancy is there, clearing backlog is impossible because litigation is increasing but number of judges is not increasing.Quick disposal is also needed. Speed of disposal is very slow. Hearing needs to be done fast, government pleaders need to be ready with instructions. Half of the time, they are taking time for either filing reply or rejoinder. All that has to be stopped. .K Chidambaram, President of Andhra Pradesh High Court Bar Association.Even judges are opposing it but they can’t do so openly because the proposal is from CJI. It will not be helpful, rather it will create unnecessary trouble not only for lawyers but judicial officers too..Khaja Vijarat Ali, Secretary of Telangana High Court Advocates' Association.Most advocates come from rural areas; they return to their villages on Friday night. Khaja Vijarat Ali.We already convened a General Body and unanimously opposed it.It will put pressure on judges also - reserved judgments are released only after 15 days, 20 days or even one month. This timeline will increase to 2 months.Instead of this, the need is to fill the vacancies in all courts..Sankar Prasad Dalapati, Secretary of Calcutta High Court Bar Association.We reject the proposal. Working hours already stand adjusted for the past 10-12 years. Earlier, the court hours were up to 4:15 PM and the lunch time was 45 minutes. It was modified - the lunch hour was reduced by 15 minutes and the Court now functions till 4:30 PM. Each and every working day, we are working 30 minutes more.Our Bar is refusing the proposal. A number of vacancies are there, why Supreme Court is not filling those? Work on Saturdays will not reduce pendency..Manoj Kumar Mishra, President of Orissa High Court Bar Association.We work on Sundays because the clients through the State come for discussion. Saturdays should not be working days.Not only lawyers, it will also affect the judges. They write judgments on Saturdays. It will be almost seven days working for lawyers and judges. Backlog can be reduced only be appointing more and efficient judges..Ritu Kumar, President of Jharkhand High Court Advocates' Association.Lawyers' work is very difficult. We don’t have a 10-5 job.Ritu Kumar.Unless we take a decision, I will not be able to make a comment [as the President]. However, when entire country is opposing, I would also like to oppose...I don’t think this will help. The system of working has to be changed. Unnecessary adjournments can be avoided. State can be forced to file affidavit within time, time and again they should not be granted time for filing it. Instead of unnecessary adjournment, the matters need to be decided earliest..DCS Rawat, Uttarakhand High Court Bar Association.Overburdened judges and under-prepared lawyers lead to ineffective hearings and adjournments, which could ironically stall disposal rates rather than improve them.DCS Rawat.It is a misconception that Saturdays are currently "holidays"...Converting these into court sitting days would disrupt this essential preparatory cycle.It is unlikely to have the desired effect. Justice delivery is not a factory production line; it relies on quality application of mind. If you remove the time allocated for reading case files and writing judgments, the quality of justice suffers.Litigation is already a high-stress profession with long hours. The "non-sitting" Saturday is often the only buffer available for mental recovery and administrative work. Removing this balance will lead to burnout among the Bench and the Bar, ultimately decreasing the overall efficiency of the system.The most effective solution is to fill the existing vacancies in the High Courts promptly. Additionally, we should invest in better court infrastructure and embrace technology for routine case management..Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.
