The Supreme Court has recommended that high courts adopt a uniform approach to listing cases during court vacations, cautioning that litigants should not be prejudiced by an inadvertent act of the court — an order that came after it examined a video recording of a disputed bail hearing that took place during the Karnataka High Court’s winter break last year.
The bench’s scrutiny of the material eventually led it to flag a broader procedural issue concerning the urgent listing of matters when high courts are on vacation. In an unusual exercise, a bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu went through a pen drive containing the video recording and transcript of the December 26, 2025 hearing to examine conflicting claims over whether a government counsel had been given an adequate opportunity to oppose bail.
The recommendation arose from an appeal by a senior intelligence officer of the Directorate General of Service Tax Intelligence against a Karnataka high court order granting bail to Mohammed Kamran, accused of causing a loss of more than ₹ 43 crore to the exchequer through alleged fraudulent input tax credit claims and invoices issued without the supply of goods.
The examination of the video-recording revealed that the department was not entirely unrepresented, as the lawyer who appeared did make some submissions on the merits. The arrangement would also remain subject to the relevant rules framed by individual high courts. Where listing directions intersect with court holidays, the calculation of deadlines can determine whether a case is heard during the break or after reopening, potentially affecting both parties seeking urgent relief and those entitled to oppose it. When the request was declined, the lawyer chose to assist the court by opposing bail.What weighed more heavily against Kamran was the manner in which he secured an expedited hearing while pursuing parallel legal remedies. The writ court refused interim relief that day.
After filing a bail petition in the high court on December 9, 2025, he moved the sessions court for bail the following day. On December 22, he also filed a writ petition challenging the legality of his arrest and seeking, among other reliefs, release from custody. Later the same day, a memo was moved seeking urgent listing of the pending bail petition, which was heard on December 26 during the winter vacation.
Because a deadline happens to expire while the court is in recess, this would help ensure that matters are not listed during a vacation merely. Because vacation benches are intended to address urgent matters that cannot wait until regular court sittings resume, the recommendation is significant. Because the department’s standing counsel had been engaged to appear in the matter, however, he had also sought an adjournment.
In its October 16 order, the court said that when a high court directs a matter to be listed “two weeks hence”, and the day following the expiry of that period falls during a court vacation, the registry should ordinarily calculate the two-week period by excluding the vacation. “These observations, aimed at serving the interest of justice better, are essential to secure uniformity as well as to ensure that litigants are not prejudiced due to an inadvertent act of the court,” the bench said.
The court, however, clarified that this approach would not apply where the bench specifically directs a matter to be listed on a date falling during the vacation or orders its listing before the vacation bench.
