Supreme Court judge Justice UU Lalit, who is next in line to become the Chief Justice of India, said he was in favour of courts starting their day early. Sharing his views, Justice Lalit said if kids can go to school at 7 am, why cannot judges and lawyers start work at 9 am.

The remarks came after a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices Lalit, S Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia started today’s proceedings at 9.30 am, an hour earlier than the usual starting time of 10.30 am.

Justice Lalit remarked, “In my view, 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, then why can’t we come at 9 am.”

Justice Lalit said this after senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing in a case of bail matter, praised the bench at the end of the hearing for starting the day’s work earlier than the usual time.

“I must say that this time of 9.30 am is a more proper time to start the courts,” Rohatgi said.

Justice Lalit expressed his views that if courts start their work early, they can finish the day’s work early and judges would have more time in the evening to look into the case files slated to be taken up the next day.

“The courts can start their work at 9 am and rise at 11.30 am for a half an hour break and then finish the day’s work by 2 pm. By doing this, judges will get more time to do more things in the evening,” Justice Lalit said.

He further said that such an arrangement would work in fresh cases and matters that do not entail lengthy hearings.

On his part, Rohatgi expressed the hope that such arrangements could become a norm by the end of August.

Justice Lalit responded and said, “This is just a capsule.”

As per the current arrangement, Supreme Court judges hear cases from 10:30 am to 4 pm on weekdays.