new delhi retreats are generally popular with the corporate world of late the practice has picked up in the top bureaucracy where senior officials particularly from the finance ministry take allexpenses paid holidays at some of the best resorts around delhi after presentation of the union budget but this time all the supreme court judges have decided to take a threeday retreat in madhya pradesh a break from mundane court procedures and reflect on issues that directly or indirectly come during the delivery of justice this is the fourth retreat of sc judges the last one being in 2009 according to a sourcestarting april 14 the judges retreat divided into eight sessions is being organised at the national judicial academy spread across 63 acres in the outskirts of bhopal where attendance of all the 25 apex court judges has been made compulsory the campus boasts of recreational facilities including a fullyequipped gymnasium swimming pool sauna tennis billiards besides a 280seater state oftheart auditorium and conference and seminar roomsreserve bank of india rbi governor raghuram rajan national security adviser nsa ajit doval and experts from the fields of business and education are some of the speakers who will give the judges an overview of the world outside the judiciary president pranab mukherjee is scheduled to address the concluding session on april 16 the top judiciary will have a closeddoor session with nsa doval on april 15 on national security and the threats of global terrorism followed the next day by a session with raghuram rajan who will address economic growth and globalisation there is a session also dedicated to climate change and key environmental challenges interestingly the programme schedule has not been shared with all the brother judges of the sc chief justice of india t s thakur is believed to have formed a committee of four seniors justices j s khehar madan b lokur kurien joseph and a k sikrito oversee the retreat programme the court is on vacation during this periodthe retreat comes amid a standoff between the higher judiciary and the government over the memorandum of procedure for appointment of judges the top judiciary is believed to be against a controversial clause proposed in the mop framed by the government where the latter has reserved the right to reject any recommendation made by the collegium on the grounds of national security the retreat also comes just a week ahead of the chief ministers and chief justices conference on administration of justice scheduled to be held in the capital on april 24