By Kanu Sarda. Delhi, India, 12:00 PM IST

Strange as it may sound, lawyers here have cited traffic snarls as the reason for nixing a proposal to increase the working hours of the high court.

'Lawyers practicing in the high court have to travel long distances everyday, from different corners of NCR (NCR),' the Delhi High Court Bar Association (DHCBA) said in a communique explaining why it was opposed to longer court hours.

'Commuting time has greatly increased due to heavy congestion of traffic. Two to three hours are consumed in travelling daily, after which lawyers have to deal with clients in their chambers in the morning and evening.

'They reach home late which effects their health,' said the association communique.

The communique came in response to one from Delhi High Court Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah seeking its views on a unanimous recommendation three months ago by the chief justices of the high courts that working hours be increased in a bid to cut down their staggering backlogs.

Shah had proposed to increase the court's working hours by half-an-hour a day or increase the number of working days.

At present the court functions for five hours Monday-Friday. Saturdays and Sundays are holidays.

The bar association, instead, suggested better utilizing of the present working hours.

The number of judges in the Delhi High Court has been raised by seven to 41, against a sanctioned strength of 48. A total of 79,466 civil and criminal cases were pending in the court as of June 30.

According to the bar association, there is need to reduce the backlog but increasing the working time by half-an-hour a day would not improve productivity, but instead would make life difficult for lawyers.

'Disposals would improve if lawyers and judges fully use the existing working hours. Punctuality if of the utmost importance,' bar association K.C. Mittal told IANS.

By Kanu Sarda (Staff Writer, © IANS)