Supreme Court judge Justice Aravind Kumar urged young lawyers to work longer hours instead of taking weekends off to relax. He said that people starting out in law should be wedded to their profession, citing his own early days at the Bar.
“You should be wedded to your profession and only when you dedicate yourself to what you are doing, the results will be encouraging,” said Justice Kumar, according to a report in Bar and Bench.
“I appeal to all the youngsters, taking off once. This is what I have seen in especially Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Sundays not working, Saturday evening taking off. In Bangalore, we had no holidays,” he said.
Justice Kumar cites personal example
Speaking at the 5th Edition of the ICA International Conference, the Supreme Court judge said that dedication is crucial to career growth. Shorter working hours, he cautioned, could come at the expense of learning and experience.
He cited his personal experience, saying that his early years in the Bar were marked by working Saturdays and Sundays.
{{/usCountry}}He cited his personal experience, saying that his early years in the Bar were marked by working Saturdays and Sundays.
{{/usCountry}}“In Bangalore, we had no holidays. Only holiday was Sunday going at 4.30. Otherwise, we used to always work… earliest was 11.30, late was 1.30,” said Justice Kumar.
The former chief justice of the Gujarat High Court even revealed that he attended court proceedings as a lawyer shortly after his wedding.
“You got married day before yesterday and you are here,” he recalled being told by the arbitrator.
Explaining why he chose to work days after his wedding, Justice Kumar said: “I did not want to lose the flow of the reasoning… I wanted to learn”.
Remarks reignite debate
The judge’s remarks reignited the debate around work-life balance on social media. Some X users compared his remarks to Infosys founder Narayana Murthy, who had earlier advocated for 70-hour work weeks for nation building and sparked massive backlash.
More recently, in 2025, the chairman of Larsen & Toubro waded into controversy by saying he wanted his employees to work on Sundays as well as Saturdays.
During an employee interaction, SN Subrahmanyan was asked why Larsen & Toubro, a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, was still making its employees work on Saturdays.
“I regret I am not able to make you work on Sundays. If I can make you work on Sundays, I will be more happy, because I work on Sundays,” Subrahmanyan replied.
(Also read: ‘How long can you stare at your wife?’: L&T chairman says he wants employees to work on Sunday too)