HCs function at half their strength as pendency of cases reach all time high

With the government still to take a final call on expediting appointment of High Court (HC) judges, the number of under-trial prisoners across the country is on the verge of touching the 3 lakh mark. Given the ongoing friction between Supreme Court and Centre on the matter, a large number of posts of HC judges are lying vacant for the past two years.

According to the latest data compiled of Ministry of Law and Justice, which is headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad, the number of HC judges’ vacancy has reached 475 out of the approved strength of 1,044 judges across  24 high courts.

Given that high courts are running at barely half their strength, the government’s promise to bring down pendency of cases via speedy trial remains a distant dream. In the last six months, the vacancy of high court judges have reached 475 from 443. In other words, the high courts are functioning with just 569 judges as on July 22.

However, the Law Ministry has issued an advisory to all states and Union Territories regarding use of Section 436A of the Criminal Procedure Code to reduce overcrowding of prisons by taking up cases of under-trials. Besides, all State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs) have also been issued instructions to set up an under- trial review committee in each district of the state to bring down pendency.

The worst situation is in Uttar Pradesh as the Allahabad High Court has 83 vacancies, followed by 39 in Punjab and Haryana High Court and 37 in High Court of Madras. Notably, the approved strength of the Madras HC was increased to 75 from 60 from December 21, 2015.

The situation at Karnataka and Delhi high courts is also in no way better as they are short of 35 and 25 judges respectively. Vacancy in High Court of Judicature of Hyderabad is 36. The high courts in BJP-ruled states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have 19 vacancies each, while HCs of Chhattisgarh and Kerala have 14 vacancies each. The Bombay HC has  30 vacancies, Calcutta HC is short of 31 judges, Patna HC is functioning without 26 judges, Gauhati HC has vacancy of 11 judges and Jammu & Kashmir HC is short of 8 judges.

The High Court of Tripura has no vacancy, while the Meghalaya High Court is one judge short of its approved strength of four. The Sikkim High Court with an approved strength of three is also one judge short.