The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that senior advocates should refrain from arguing cases during the summer recess, emphasizing that the partial working days of the court should be used as an opportunity to promote junior advocates.
A Bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma made the observation while hearing a matter related to a plea challenging an order of the National Company Law Tribunal. During the hearing, senior advocates Mukul Rohatgi, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, and Neeraj Kishan Kaul appeared before the court.
“Senior lawyers should not argue cases during these partial working days,” the Bench stated, underlining the need for giving juniors a platform to grow.
The comment came after one of the counsels sought an adjournment on the ground that senior advocate Shyam Divan, who was supposed to argue the matter, was unavailable.
The remarks align with recent institutional changes adopted by the top court. The traditional “summer vacation” has now been officially rechristened as “partial court working days” following the Supreme Court (Second Amendment) Rules, 2024, notified on November 5, 2024. The amendment revises provisions of the earlier Supreme Court Rules, 2013.
As per the amendment, “The length of the partial court working days and the number of holidays for the court and the offices of the court shall be such as may be fixed by the Chief Justice and notified in the official gazette so as not to exceed 95 days excluding Sundays.”
Although the Supreme Court traditionally observes both summer and winter breaks, it does not fully suspend its functioning. Special “vacation benches” are constituted to hear urgent and important cases. However, in a notable change, the amended rules have replaced the term “vacation judge” with simply “judge”.
The Supreme Court calendar for 2025 shows that the partial court working days for the summer session will run from May 26, 2025, to July 14, 2025.
