Lawyers divided over proposal for curtailing Calcutta HC's festival vacations

Kolkata: The advocate community practising in the Calcutta High Court seems to be sharply divided over the recommendation of the panel of judges of the court for curtailing prolonged festival vacation of the court in and around October every year, starting with Durga Puja and ending with Bhai Dooj which is popular as Bhai Phota in West Bengal.

Two of the three associations of counsel, namely the Calcutta High Court Bar Association and the Calcutta High Court Bar Library Club, have opposed the suggestion to curtail that festival vacation by seven days.

On the other hand, the third association, christened the Incorporated Law Society of Calcutta High Court, is agreeable to the suggestion on this count by the four-member judge’s panel of Justice Harish Tandon, Justice Soumen Sen, Justice Jaymalya Bagchi, and Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty.

Calcutta High Court sources said that the panel of judges also sought the opinion of these three associations of counsels in the matter where the differences in opinion surfaced.

In the next step, the panel will seek the opinion of all the judges of the Calcutta High Court in the matter following which the final decision on this count will be taken by the full bench of judges.

It is learnt that the Supreme Court is in favour of 222 working days in a year at all the high courts of the country and in order to achieve that the only option is curtailing the festival holiday by seven days.

However, the member of the Calcutta High Court Bar Association, the largest association of advocates attached to the High Court, has claimed that although the proposal for curtailing the festival holiday is aimed at releasing the cases pending for a long time, this alone will not solve the problem.

"Immediately, the vacant posts of around 22 judges of the Calcutta High Court should be filled up. Process of selecting judges from the bar should also be expedited," said a bar association member.