HC to work 15 minutes more

In a welcome measure to speed up disposal of cases, the Madras High Court has decided to work for 15 minutes longer every day from the next judicial year. The Madras High Court, which already works 15 minutes longer than any other court in the country, has now decided to scale down the daily lunch recess from one hour to just 45 minutes. The revised sitting hours is from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm, and from 2.15 pm to 4.45 pm. The new five-and-a-half-hour-schedule will come into force on June 7, 2010, said a registry notification on Thursday. "With this, we will be working for 30 minutes over and above the original work hours, daily. Putting in 30 minutes of additional work for 210 days will give us 105 hours annually. Translated into days, we will have 19 additional working days next year," said a senior official. As on June 30, the Madras High Court has a backlog of over 4.68 lakh cases, next only to the Allahabad High Court's pendency of 9.35 lakh cases. Between March 31 and June 30 alone, the High Court's pendency rose by more than 6,000 cases, as the filing of new cases outstripped the disposal rate. Tamil Nadu's subordinate courts, on their part, have a backlog of 10.59 lakh cases. In this scenario, the High Court had three options to speed up the disposal rate: slash the usual five-week summer vacation; scrap the Dussehra break or reduce Christmas vacation; and three, increase the sitting hours. Jurists say that the increase in sitting hours will improve the disposal rate by 10%. "The move has several advantages. We will be 10% more efficient by investing next to nothing in terms of infrastructure and staff strength," said a judicial officer. "It would cost us crores of rupees if we were to increase the number of courts or judges by another 10%," he said. However, another officer said it would be too simplistic to assume that a 10% increase in work hours would proportionately increase the disposal rate. "By evening, we will be tired and it would tell on the speed of disposal," he said. A woman officer said the additional work hours would further delay their departure from office in the evening. Rejecting the arguments, a court official said the additional work hours are well within the outer frame work, that is, the closing hours would continue to remain 4.45 pm as only the lunch hour has been reduced. In 2007, during justice AP Shah's tenure as chief justice, the total number of working days of the High Court was increased from 210 to 220. It was, however, brought back to 210 after protests from the Bar. It was the Bar which suggested the addition of 15 minutes to the usual work hours. A couple of months ago, during the all India chief justices conference, justice Prafulla Kumar Misra is said to have circulated a note suggesting a uniform judicial calendar containing 220 working days for all High Courts in the country. When the suggestion was placed before the Full Court of judges here, several options, including reduction of the five-week summer break and working on Saturdays, were discussed.

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