By Adnan Al-Shabrawi

Okaz/Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — The weather was extremely hot at Jeddah General Court on Sunday as air-conditioners broke down compelling the judges to postpone hearing of cases.

The litigants, who complained of unbearable heat, expressed uneasiness because of the heat inside the court and the hot weather outside.

Sunday was the first day of the court work after the Haj and Eid Al-Adha holidays.

The litigants, who demanded a court break until the air-conditioners were fixed, could not stay in the court or its corridors any longer.

According to the The General Authority of Meteorology and Environmenal Protection, on Sunday the temperature in Jeddah was 40 degrees in the shade while the humidity was 75 percent.

The court, during the past six months, received about 14,000 lawsuits with a monthly average of 2,500 cases.

Informed sources said the first degree courts in Jeddah issued about 41,000 rulings during July with an increase of 29 percent over their number during the same period the previous year.

They said the General Courts issue an average of more than 2,160 rulings every month.

The sources said about 65 percent of the rulings issued by the General Courts were in Makkah, Riyadh and the Eastern Province.