VACANCIES IN THE POSTS OF JUDGES IN THE HIGH COURTS OF INDIA

The appointment of judges to the High Courts is governed by the Article 217 of the Indian Constitution. Apart from the Constitutional provisions, the process of appointment of judges is outlined in the Memorandum of Procedure. The process of appointment is initiated by the recommendation of nominees to the State Government by the Chief Justices of the concerned High Courts. The Department of Justice under the Ministry of Law & Justice releases monthly data regarding the vacancy of judges in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts across the nation.

The member of collegium for the appointment of High Court Judges comprises of CJI N.V. Ramana, Justice Rohiton Fali Nariman & Justice Uday Umesh Lalit. Beside them, the collegium for appointment of judges in the Supreme Court includes Justice Ajay Manikrao Khanwilkar & Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud along with the three members mentioned above.

The data released on June 01, 2021 reveals that the Supreme Court has sanctioned strength of 34 judges, out of which 7 posts are currently vacant. High Courts are currently having a sanctioned strength of 1080 judges including permanent and additional judges. However, out of this only 650 are working judges, leaving 430 posts vacant; approximating to 40% vacancy.  This is a disquieting figure given the level of pendency of cases in the courts.

According to the Data of Ministry of Law & Justice, as of June 01, 2021, eleven High Courts have reported over 40% vacancies, including High Courts of Gujarat, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Patna, Calcutta, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Jharkhand and Punjab & Haryana. Patna High Court is on the top of the list, having just 20 working judges against a sanctioned strength of 53, approximating to 62% vacancy. Calcutta High Court is Second on the list, having 72 sanctioned strength and 31 working judges, i.e., over 56% vacancy.  Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan High Courts are on third with 54% vacant posts. The High Courts of Manipur, Meghalaya & Sikkim are the only three functioning at full strength with a sanctioned strength of 5, 4 & 3 judges respectively. After the appointment of CJI N.V. Ramana, only seven recommendations have been made for the appointment of judges in High Courts. On one side there is a need for the appointment of more judges in order to deliver speedy justice whereas on the other side the collegium keeps failing to appoint judges in the High Courts, leading to vacant posts and eventually increase in the number of pendency of cases. As per the National Judicial Data Grid, the backlog in the cases of 25 High Courts raised to 20.4% in 2019-2020 from 5.29% in 2018-2019, which is again worrisome.