LUCKNOW, June 10 -- When judges in Lucknow recently pedalled their way to courts in response to the Prime Minister's call for fuel conservation and austerity, the symbolic exercise brought back memories of a time when cycling to court was not a choice, but a compulsion for most judicial officers in Uttar Pradesh.

For retired judicial officers, the sight also revived memories of another chapter in the state's judicial history - the pooled vehicle system under which five judges had to share a government vehicle to travel to office and back home.

PN Parashar, former All India Judges' Association working president and ex-UP Judicial Officers' Association chief, remembers the days when judicial officers routinely travelled by bicycle or rick...