Former Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud has dismissed the criticism that the Supreme Court has too many vacations, stating that it is "completely unfounded" as judges work "24/7, 365 days a year."

In an exclusive interview, Justice Chandrachud also said the Supreme Court of India is among the world's top courts with the "longest duration of working days". "You know there are Supreme Courts in other parts of the world where if a judge sits for a week on hearing cases, they would get a week off to actually deliver judgment," he said.

The debate over the Supreme Court's vacation schedule has resurfaced multiple times. In 2022, former Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju raised concerns in Parliament, stating that "there is a feeling among the people of India that the long vacations taken by the courts are not convenient for justice-seekers." He emphasized that it was his "obligation and duty to convey the message or sense of this House to the judiciary."

Asked whether the world, at large, needs to be sensitised more towards the vacation of the top court, Justice Chandrachud said: "Absolutely. I completely agree with you. For the reason that even during the summers, it's a partial court working period. The court does not close its shutters." 

He added: "The criticism that the court has too many vacations is completely unfounded because it doesn't, you know. It's not justified by what is the truth, which is, the judges are working 24*7, 365 days." 

The former CJI said the "first victim of a life on the bench is your own ability to spend time with your own family". "So I'm making up for lost ground now, you know," Justice Chandrachud, who concluded his tenure as the 50th CJI after two years on November 10, said.

Justice Chandrachud said all the judges of the top court work throughout the week, that is, from Monday to Sunday. "There are no weekends for Supreme Court judges because on Saturdays and Sundays, you are doing two things. You are reading for the Monday's cases, 70 or 80 cases, and you are delivering judgments which have been held back in reserve, either that week or the previous week. In the summer, the so-called summer vacation, it's not a vacation," he said. 

He explained that critical constitutional cases or those involving important questions of law are mainly the ones that are dealt with during the vacations. "It's only when you have a mini break or a longer break, say, a mini break like for Holi or for Diwali that judges get down to doing all this work," he said. 

"Occasionally, you know, judges would go out of town. But even when they go out of town, say, on a Friday evening and come back on Saturday, they are addressing students of law colleges. They are conducting legal aid camps. So that's equally a part of the functioning of a contemporary judge. So it's not that judges have, you know, unlimited time off or, you know, time to spend with their families," he added.