Bombay HC's division bench sits beyond working hours to hear cases, draws law minister's praise

A division bench headed by Justice S S Shinde of the Bombay High Court worked around five hours beyond the regular working hours to hear around 200 cases scheduled for the day. This happened on Thursday, and taking note of it, Union Law and Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju praised Justice Shinde. ”I am very happy to learn that Justice S S Shinde of Bombay High Court had heard over 190 cases yesterday. He sat in the bench from 10.30 am to 8 pm !” Rijiju posted on Twitter.

Justice Shinde has only two months remaining for superannuation and has been recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation as Chief Justice of the Rajasthan High Court.

The bench of Justice Shinde and Justice M N Jadhav presides over criminal petitions, parole and furlough applications. On Thursday, the bench had 206 petitions scheduled for hearing. The normal working hours of the high court is from 10.30 am to 4.30 pm. Since, the board could not be completed, the bench chose to sit beyond the working hours and heard around 200 matters till 8 pm.

The bench took an hour’s lunch break in the afternoon.

On Friday, the bench has 265 cases scheduled for hearing.

This is, however, not the first time a judge of the high court has sat beyond court working hours to complete their board.

Justice S J Kathawalla, now retired, has in the past sat up to 3 in the morning to complete his list of petitions. Several other benches in the high court, too, have been sitting beyond court hours to complete their board after the high court re-opened post summer break.

Some of them include division benches led by Justices S V Gangapurwala, P D Naik and Bharati Dangre.