Vijay D. Patil
Time and again, the CJI of India Tirth Singh Thakur in his emotional appeal is reminding the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to clear the appointments of High Court judges as recommended by the Collegium of judges (system). However, ever since the SC has struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) law, the government has slowed down its action (I would say in the prejudiced and biased mind as the SC has not agreed to the government’s proposal) in this regard (appointments). An immediate list of posting and appointments of 170 judges is still long awaited for clearance from the government side, though it is said that they have cleared it. It may please be noted that there are 424 vacancies to be filled in the existing strength of 1044 in 24 High Courts, in the 29 states of India, and by not doing so, it is causing a complete dead-lock and blocking the judiciary and even may result in, it to come to the ‘grinding halt’. Also in the recent past, the CJI said that they need 70,000 judges as per the ‘population to judges’ ratio to clear the existing and the long-outstanding nearly four crores court cases filed by the litigants.
In view of the earnest repeated appeals by the CJI, the BJP-led-NDA Central government is requested to take immediate action to top the vacancies of judges as lingering verdicts may result in to believe the litigants that justice delayed is justice denied. Sooner the action, better the clearance.
The fact is that India has a total of 21,598 judges (sanctioned strength till/as of 31st Dec 2015). This figure includes 20,502 judges in lower courts, 1,065 high court judges and 31 (30+1CJI) Supreme Court judges. However, on April 24, 2016, CJI Tirth Singh Thakur made his impassioned speech-cum-appeal there were six vacancies in the Supreme Court, 432 in the various High Courts and a whopping 4,432 (as of 31st Dec 2015) in the subordinate judiciary. But, more importantly, if all the 20,502 posts of judges in the subordinate judiciary are somehow filled, there wouldn’t be enough courtrooms to accommodate all of them since there are currently only 16,513 courtrooms —a shortfall of 3,989 — across the country.
Judicial infrastructure, it is clear, hasn’t kept pace with the rate of litigation.
