A year in life of a judge: Camps, meetings & remand duties

Retd Justice of Bombay High Court, RC Chavan, talks to DNA about fatigue, vacations and holidays of lower court judges.

"Whenever I read criticism about vacations and holidays for our courts, particularly in the backdrop of huge pendency of cases, I am reminded of an old article written by late Justice SM Daud, titled, "Subordinate Judiciary, a study in serfdom".

Muted voices of judicial officers prevent the common man from knowing the truth about vacations and holidays.

The reality is that though civil courts have a five-week summer vacation and one-week winter vacation, criminal courts are working throughout the vacations. Judicial officers, individually, get to enjoy only two weeks out of these six weeks by rotation. In a transfer year, even these two weeks are consumed in packing belongings, arranging for transport, admissions of children etc.

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As for too many holidays, it is not judges who want holidays on various festivals. It is advocates, common man and even police machinery, which would not be available. All magistrates have to work on all Sundays and holidays albeit by rotation. So for magistrates, atleast one weekend in a month is booked for remand duties. This is not all. There are Lok Adalats, Law Literacy Camps, workshops, meetings and at times visits of judges of superior courts on weekends. Thus, the poor souls are blocked for most of the year.

People do not realise that the service conditions of judicial officers which require them to be away from their hometowns. A Mohammad bin Tughlak (I would like to call him that) can also order that judicial officers should not be posted even in the region from which they come. So if an officer has aged parents or parents-in-law to be looked after, (s)he is on a train or a bus to the hometown, rushing back to the court on a Monday.

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Now, many women are entering judicial service. They have limitations on choice of spouses. A practicing lawyer is ruled out as he would not be able to practice at the place where the lady is posted. A professional, like a doctor or a chartered accountant, is ruled out because he can't shift his practice from place to place. A government servant is a good option with the hope that his department would post him where the judicial officer is posted.

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Sometimes, by the time strings are pulled and the government transfers the husband, it is wife's turn to be transferred. Many officers opt for the judicial officer as the spouse in the fond hope that both would be able to work together. But again, a Mohammad Bin Tughlak descends and orders that they cannot be posted in the same place. So either the husband or the wife has to snatch a rare weekend to spend some time together. This is not all. Everyone is mindlessly after numbers because that is how performance is evaluated as if judicial officers are salesman with daily targets."