SC On Cases Cleared: Supreme Court changed its stance, heard a lot even during holidays, cleared 1170 cases

New Delhi: The tradition of giving long summer vacations is still going on in the Supreme Court, but, this year something different has happened. For the first time, a record 20 benches were set up during the nearly two-month vacation. These benches resolved so many cases with the consent of the lawyers that the list of cases kept for hearing during the vacation ended. Many people are unaware of the workload of the Supreme Court judges and often criticize them for the long summer vacations. Regarding this, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said that people see us sitting in the court only from 10:30 am to 4 pm, where we hear 40 to 60 cases. In fact, the amount of work we do to prepare for the next day’s hearing is much more than the time spent in hearing cases in the court. The Chief Justice said that every judge spends equal time reading case files for the next day’s hearing. The work of delivering judgments is done on office days of the week. On Saturdays, every judge works on writing (dictating) judgments. On Sundays we all read the cases scheduled for hearing on the coming Monday. In this way, every judge of the Supreme Court works seven days a week, without any holidays.

Lots of cases were resolved during summer vacation, 3 times increase
Regular work has resumed in the court from Monday after the summer vacation. Benches headed by the Chief Justice (CJI) will deliver judgments in the next few weeks. Of these judgments, 3 judgments will be delivered by a bench of 9 judges, 2 judgments by a bench of 7 judges and 2 judgments by a bench of 5 judges. It is worth noting that the number of cases settled during the holidays has increased more than three times compared to last year. This year around 1170 cases were settled during the holidays, while in 2017 this number was around 461.

Which are the cases that will be decided in the coming weeks?
There are many important cases pending in the Supreme Court for decades, some of which may be decided in the coming weeks. One of these disputes is whether industrial alcohol can be considered intoxicating liquor, and another is whether private property can be classified as community property. It is worth noting that Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, apart from attending conferences in the country and abroad and settling administrative work, is working on decisions in 18 cases of benches led by him/her. There are a total of 176 petitions related to these 18 cases. The Supreme Court registry told the Times of India that, “Other Supreme Court judges have also reserved decisions in 190 cases, which have 786 petitions related to them. They are also working continuously on these decisions so that the decisions can be given within a few weeks of the court opening.

Statistics are telling the situation
In the last six years (before 2023), an average of 1380 cases were filed during summer vacations. The Supreme Court registry told the Times of India that 2261 and 4160 cases were presented before the summer vacation benches in 2023 and 2024 respectively. It is worth noting that the number of cases disposed of has also increased significantly. Compared to the figures of 2017, almost three times more cases were disposed of during summer vacations this year. According to the registry, an average of 461 cases were disposed of during summer vacations before 2023, in the summer vacation of 2023, the Supreme Court disposed of 751 cases, which increased to 1170 this year. Apart from this, vacation benches issued notices in 1157 cases during summer vacations this year.