Delhi High Court to now sit on first and third Saturdays of every month
The decision, issued through a notification signed by the HC’s registrar general Arun Bhardwaj, follows a resolution passed in a Full Court meeting held on December 22.
In an attempt to ensure speedy disposal of court cases, the Delhi High Court’s administrative branch on Thursday declared that the first and third Saturdays of every month will henceforth be regular working days for the HC.
This makes the Delhi HC the first high court in the country to officially declare two Saturdays in a month as court sitting days, taking the total number of fixed regular working days from 222 to 229.
The decision, issued through a notification signed by the HC’s registrar general Arun Bhardwaj, follows a resolution passed in a Full Court meeting held on December 22.
Since May last year, the HC has been incrementally expanding its working days to include Saturdays.
In a notification issued by the HC on May 14, 2025, it was declared that the fourth Saturday of every month, which was observed as a holiday for the Registry until then, would be a working day for the Registry thereafter.
The HC on October 4, 2025 announced that following a Full Court meeting on September 22 that year, each bench of the court would observe one Saturday every month as a working day for the calendar year of 2025.
Since the October notification, Saturday sittings have been used by most courts to take up cases that have been pending for years.
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The shift comes with a focus on increasing the disposal of cases. The current pendency of cases at Delhi HC stands at 1.25 lakh cases, according to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). More than 93,000 of these cases are over a year old, with a majority of the pending 1.25 lakh cases being civil cases (93,138).
The development assumes significance as the HC presently has nearly 22,000 cases pending for over 10 years and another 23,000-odd cases pending for five to 10 years.
Under Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya, who took oath on January 21, 2025, the court saw a significant jump in the disposal of cases—from 5,574 cases disposed of in 2024 to around 19,000 cases in 2025 (18,938).
High Courts across the country usually announce a handful of specific Saturdays that are to be deemed working days to compensate for holidays, and officially remain closed for court proceedings on Saturdays and Sundays otherwise. With 61 holidays and all Sundays and second Saturdays every month marked as offs in the 2026 Delhi HC calendar, the Delhi HC had approximately provisioned for 240 working days.
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Meanwhile, the October notification requiring each HC bench to observe one Saturday every month as a court working day for the calendar year of 2025 was met with objections from the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA).
On October 17, 2025, in a representation addressed to the Chief Justice, the Bar alleged that it was not consulted before the decision.
The DHCBA had also noted at the time that the decision affects the “work-life balance” of lawyers. Expressing their “deep concern and disquiet” over the mandate, the lawyers’ body highlighted that even keeping one Saturday working in a month for each bench would still require lawyers’ availability for all Saturdays.
The DHCBA, in its representation, requested that the notification be either kept in abeyance or suggested as an alternative that all benches sit on a fixed Saturday in a month to ensure uniformity.
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The latest arrangement partly caters to the DHCBA’s earlier demand for fixed Saturday hearings across all benches to ensure uniformity in the working schedules of lawyers. However, representatives of the DHCBA said they were not consulted by the Bench before issuing the latest decision.
Sohini Ghosh is a Senior Correspondent at The Indian Express. Previously based in Ahmedabad covering Gujarat, she recently moved to the New Delhi bureau, where she primarily covers legal developments at the Delhi High Court
Professional Profile
Background: An alumna of the Asian College of Journalism (ACJ), she previously worked with ET NOW before joining The Indian Express.
Core Beats: Her reporting is currently centered on the Delhi High Court, with a focus on high-profile constitutional disputes, disputes over intellectual property, criminal and civil cases, issues of human rights and regulatory law (especially in the areas of technology and healthcare).
Earlier Specialty: In Gujarat, she was known for her rigorous coverage in the beats of crime, law and policy, and social justice issues, including the 2002 riot cases, 2008 serial bomb blast case, 2016 flogging of Dalits in Una, among others.
She has extensively covered health in the state, including being part of the team that revealed the segregation of wards at the state’s largest government hospital on lines of faith in April 2020.
With Ahmedabad being a UNESCO heritage city, she has widely covered urban development and heritage issues, including the redevelopment of the Sabarmati Ashram
Recent Notable Articles (Late 2025)
Her recent reporting from the Delhi High Court covers major political, constitutional, corporate, and public-interest legal battles:
High-Profile Case Coverage
She has extensively covered the various legal battles - including for compensation under the aegis of North East Delhi Riots Claims Commission - pertaining to the 2020 northeast Delhi riots, as well as 1984 anti-Sikh riots.
She has also led coverage at the intersection of technology and governance, and its impact on the citizenry, from, and beyond courtrooms — such as the government’s stakeholder consultations for framing AI-Deepfake policy.
Signature Style
Sohini is recognized for her sustained reporting from courtrooms and beyond. She specialises in breaking down dense legal arguments to make legalese accessible for readers. Her transition from Gujarat to Delhi has seen her expand her coverage on regulatory, corporate and intellectual property law, while maintaining a strong commitment to human rights and lacuna in the criminal justice system.
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