High Courts running short of 38% judges
New Delhi: The pendency of cases in different High Courts of the country may see a rise as high courts are running short of 38 per cent of Judges and operating at 62 per cent of its total strength of Judges in all 25 HCs.
According to the latest report provided by Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, out of 1,080 sanctioned posts for HC Judges, 418 posts are still vacant, which amount to 38.7 per cent of all the sanctioned posts, while the Supreme Court is running short of four Judges out of total sanctioned strength of 33 Judges.
In a written reply to a question of Congress MP DK Suresh, who represents Bangalore Rural constituency of Karnataka, the Law Minister said, "The sanctioned strength of High Court Judges has increased from 906 in 2014 to 1,080 in 2021 and at present, there are 418 vacancies of Judges in various HCs."
The minister further stated that the strength of HCs has been increased after receiving approvals from the state governments, high courts and Chief Justice of India.
Giving details about the strength of Judges in Supreme Court, the minister told the House that the government, in consultation with the Chief Justice, Supreme Court of India, has increased the judge strength of the Supreme Court from 30 to 33 judges (excluding Chief Justice of India) with effect from August 9, 2019 and at present, there are four vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court.
"While every effort is made to fill up the existing vacancies expeditiously, vacancies in high courts do keep on arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of judges and increase in the judge strength," the minister said in his reply.
In reply to the steps taken by the government to dispose of the court cases to bring down the pendency in various courts, the minister said that disposal of cases in courts is within the domain of judiciary and the government has no role in disposal of cases in courts.
However, the union government is committed to speedy disposal and reduction in pendency of cases, he said.
