HCs operating at 63% of total strength
3 Sept 2015 5:50 AM IST
Alarmingly, six High Courts — Hyderabad, Gauhati, Gujarat, Karnataka, Patna and Punjab and Haryana — are functioning without a permanent chief justice.
According to Law Ministry officials, <g data-gr-id="39">pendency</g> of cases in High Courts has touched the 45 lakh mark, while the situation in district courts is even worse where the figure may cross the three crore mark soon.
Given the fact that verdict on the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) is still pending, a total of 381 posts in 24 High Courts are vacant. The rising vacancy in High Courts clearly indicates <g data-gr-id="40">lack</g> of manpower in the sentinels of justice across the country. The Supreme Court too has three vacancies.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Law and Justice, Allahabad High Court has the largest number of vacancies, standing at 84 out of the total approved strength of 160.
Allahabad High Court is hence working at less than half of its strength presently. Chattisgarh high court is functioning on 40 per cent of its <g data-gr-id="36">strength,</g> while Karnataka high court is working at 51 per cent of its strength.
The number of vacancies in Chhattisgarh and Karnataka HCs are 13 and 30 against their approved strength of 22 and 62 respectively.
According to the data, out of 24 HCs, 13 are working at less than 65 per cent of its approved strength, considerably reducing the working capacity of the judiciary. Kerala, Meghalaya, Sikkim and Tripura HCs are the only ones functioning at 100 per cent of its <g data-gr-id="44">strength,</g> while Manipur HC has one vacancy. The Punjab and Haryana HC, which has the second largest approved strength 85, is working at 63 per cent of that strength.
The High Court of Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is functioning at 62 per cent of its strength with 23 vacancies out of total approved strength of 52, while the poll-bound Bihar’s Patna HC is short of 11 judges out of its total approved strength of 43.
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