Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta and veteran Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal were on the same page on Wednesday after the Supreme Court commented about court vacations.The Court remarked that those who criticise court vacations don't realise that judges do not even get to enjoy weekends.The comment was made by Justice BR Gavai, who along with Justice Sandeep Mehta, was hearing an original suit filed by the West Bengal government under Article 131 of the Constitution (original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court with respect to Centre-State disputes).The matter was adjourned to Thursday on the request made by the SG Mehta. Just as the matter came to a close, Justice Gavai asked the SG to submit a note on his submissions before the Court hears the matter.The Court also said that if arguments can be completed in three days, the Court would write the judgment during the upcoming summer vacation."It should not happen like last time. We do not know the Benches after July..." said the Court while referring to the possibility of the matter remaining incomplete before the current bench.At this stage, an informal conversation ensued on the long vacations of courts in India. SG Mehta said that those who criticise the courts do not know about their functioning."Lordships should not waste time of summer break, in lighter vein. There are better things to do and lordships anyways have 60 matters a day. Those who criticise long breaks of the High Court, Supreme Court do not know how much judges work," he said.Justice Gavai in response said,"People who criticise don't know we don't have holidays on Saturday, Sunday also. Even apart from reading case files, there are functions etc."Justice Mehta weighed, in saying that court vacations offer much needed time to draft lengthy judgments.In unison, Sibal and SG Mehta, who usually oppose each other vehemently during arguments, concurred with each other on this occasion.While Sibal said a judge's job was the toughest job in the country, Mehta said that only the people who are totally unaware of the judiciary's workload criticise the vacations."Even lawyers work till midnight. As lawyers, we would look forward to Fridays," Justice Gavai added.However, on a lighter note, Justice Gavai also said that since he was now among the first five judges of top court (in terms of seniority), he does not have to hold court during vacations."That is a privilege not available to us lesser mortals," quipped Justice Mehta, who was appointed as a top court judge only in November 2023.The suit filed by the WB government has alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has been proceeding with probes and filing FIRs without getting a nod from the State government, as mandated under the Act.It has been argued that since the general consent given to the CBI by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) led State government has been withdrawn, the FIRs lodged by the CBI cannot be proceeded with.On Wednesday morning, when the matter was taken up, SG Mehta had requested the Court to hear it at 2 PM since he was arguing before the Constitution Bench.While allowing the request, the Court impressed upon the SG to develop a second line of law officers who could represent the Central government in his absence."You must also develop a second line, Mr Mehta. In every matter, if only Mr Mehta and (ASG SV) Raju are appearing...," it had said.In the afternoon session, the matter was adjourned to Thursday after SG Mehta said the Constitution Bench matter was still ongoing,
TAGS: Supreme Court court vacations SG Tushar Mehta Kapil Sibal Justice BR Gavai Justice Sandeep Mehta
