If children can go to school at 7 in the morning, why can’t we come to court at 9: Justice Lalit

New Delhi, July 15

Justice Lalit – who is to succeed Justice NV Ramana as the Chief Justice of India on August 27– did an unusual thing on Friday. He commenced hearing of cases before the Bench led by him at 9.30 am, instead of the usual 10.30 am timing followed by all judges.

“Ideally, we should sit at 9 in the morning. I have always said that if our children can go to school at 7 in the morning, why can’t we come to court at 9?” said Justice Lalit who headed a three-judge Bench.

If courts were to commence hearings at 9 am and carry on till 11.30 am, followed by a half-an-hour break and then they could re-assemble at 12 pm and carry on till 2 pm, he said, adding “You would get time to do more things in the evening.”

Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, present in the court, appreciated the Bench taking up cases an hour before the scheduled time, saying 9.30 in the morning was a good time to commence court proceedings.

Usually, Supreme Court Benches assemble at 10.30 am on weekdays. Judges take lunch break at 1 pm and resume hearings at 2 pm and continue till 4 pm.

Justice Lalit started taking up matters before his Bench ahead of the scheduled time as he had to leave the city in the evening and he didn’t want his work to suffer, Supreme Court sources said.