Delhi High Court Revises Timings Of Court Sittings, Lunch Breaks

New Delhi:

The Delhi High Court has revised its timings for court sittings and lunch breaks for judges and staff, a day after the Supreme Court said high court judges were taking breaks “unnecessarily” and too often.

A notification issued by the high court on May 14 mentioned the revised timings going forward.

According to the notification, courts would sit from 10.30 am to 1.30 pm and then from 2.30 pm to 4.30 pm.

Courts would rise for lunch at around 1:30 pm till 2.30 pm.

The high court said the fourth Saturday of every month, which was currently observed as a holiday for the court registry, would now be a working day.

Till now, the court sitting timings were from 10.30 am to 1.15 pm and from 2.15 pm to 4.30 pm whereas they broke for lunch at around 1.15 pm till 2.15 pm.

The notification assumes importance as the apex court on May 13 said it had received several complaints against high court judges and it was a high time to assess the expenditure on them vis-a-vis their output.

“There are some judges who work very hard but at the same time there are judges who are unnecessarily taking coffee breaks; this break or that break. What is for lunch hour? We are hearing a lot of complaints about the high court judges. This is a larger issue which needs to be looked into,” the top court said.

Justice Surya Kant, who was heading the bench, added, “What is the performance of the high court judges? How much we are spending and what is the output? It’s high time we do a performance audit.”

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