327 judge posts in 25 HCs, or 29% of total, are lying vacant | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Appointment of judges remains a problem area with five high courts of Allahabad, Punjab and Haryana, Gujarat, Bombay and Calcutta alone having 171 vacancies as on April 1, accounting for over 52% of the total vacancy of 327 posts across the 25 HCs in the country. The total sanctioned strength of judges across all HCs is 1,114, which means 29.4% posts are lying vacant.
Large number of vacancies in high courts also means increasing pendency of cases, which has reached almost 62 lakh as on April 30.The total pendency in all courts has crossed 5.1 crore, including 4.5 crore in subordinate and district courts and over 80,000 in Supreme Court.
Interestingly, for half of these vacancies, Centre had claimed earlier that no recommendations were made by HC collegiums when the laid down procedure demands initiating proposals well in advance, at least six months before the vacancy arises.

Allahabad HC, country’s largest HC, has 69 vacancies against a strength of 160 judges, which means 43% posts are vacant. Gujarat HC has a higher vacancy percentage at 44%, followed by Patna and Rajasthan with 36% each.
Punjab & Haryana HC has 30 posts vacant against a sanctioned strength of 85, followed by 26 in Bombay HC where the approved strength is 94. There are 23 vacancies each in Calcutta and Gujarat HCs.
In Dec last year, while responding to MPs’ concerns against the large number of vacancies in high courts, Union law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had pointed to the slow pace of recommendations reaching the Centre.
He had said that HC collegiums were not adhering to timeline on initiation of recommendations against vacancies, adding that for 198 vacancies across HCs, collegiums of these HCs had not made any recommendations till then, leading to a huge backlog.
According to the memorandum of procedure (MoP) that guides the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, a proposal for appointment is initiated by the chief justice of the HC concerned in consultation with two senior-most judges of the HC at least six months before a vacancy occurs. “This timeline is often not adhered to by the high courts,” Meghwal had said.
Once these HC collegiums recommend candidates for judgeship, the govt seeks Intelligence Bureau’s inputs and refers them to Supreme Court collegium, which finally selects and recommends names to Centre for notification. In cases where the SC collegium has reservations, those are referred back to the HCs for reconsideration.