High courts grapple with fewer judges, rising pending cases

High Courts across India are functioning with a massive 37% of the total posts of sanctioned HC judges lying vacant.

Despite the Government of India’s strong push, the High Courts in India are functioning with a massive 37% of the total posts of sanctioned High Court judges lying vacant. As per the latest data shared by the Ministry of Law and Justice, of the 1,104 posts for High Court judges sanctioned in the country across 25 High Courts, only 700 of them are filled, as a result of which 404 chairs of High Court judges are gathering dust.

The maximum number of these vacancies are at Allahabad High Court (67), Punjab and Haryana High Court (36), Bombay High Court (36), Calcutta High Court (33), Patna High Court (28), Delhi (26), Rajasthan (24), Telangana (23), Gujarat (20) and Madhya Pradesh (18). The negative impact of this massive shortage of judges on the society at large is reflected in the number of pending cases in the High Courts and this then dissuades the common man from approaching the courts. As per the latest data, almost 59 lakh cases are pending in the various High Courts of the country, out of which 42.5 lakh are of civil nature and 16.4 lakh are of criminal nature. In Patna, the number of cases pending is 2.24 lakh, in Allahabad 10.32 lakh, in Punjab 4.50 Lakh, in Bombay 5.80 lakh, in Delhi 1.02 lakh, in Calcutta 2.24 lakh, 5.85 lakh in Rajasthan, 2.58 lakh in Telangana, 1.52 lakh in Gujarat and 4.13 lakh in Madhya Pradesh.

What paints an even grimer picture is the fact that 64% of all these cases are more than three years old, effectively emboldening the theory of “justice delayed is justice denied”. At least 72,000 cases that are being heard in the various High Courts were filed over 30 years old. The country has since 1992 seen 8 general elections and 8 PM taking oath, 20 law ministers and 26 Chief Justice of India being sworn in. Almost 1.91 lakh of the total pending cases first reached the High Courts between 1992-2002, while almost 11 lakh cases are of the period between 2002-2012.

The shortage of judges in High Courts, as per government data, in October 2020 was the same, which it is now, of 37%. In October 2020, of the 1,079 sanctioned judges’ posts, which include both permanent as well as additional judges, 404 posts (approximately 37.44 per cent) were vacant. Since 2018, the Government of India has appointed 375 new High Court Judges across the country, including 120 in 2021, 66 in 2020, 81 in 2019 and 108 in 2018. However, as the data shows, these aggressive approaches towards judicial appointments, too, have made a little impact in either narrowing the sanctioned-working gap or the number of pending cases in the High Courts. The government, on an average in the four years period between 2018-2021, has appointed a High Court judge roughly every four days. According to the government’s recent statement, at present, 171 proposals for new appointments are pending at various stages of processing between the Government and the Supreme Court Collegium, while in the remaining 233 vacancies, the government is yet to receive any recommendations from the various High Court Collegiums.

What paints an even grimer picture is the fact that

64% of all these cases are more than three years old, effectively emboldening the theory of “justice delayed is justice denied”. At least 72,000 cases that are being heard in the various High Courts were filed over 30 years old. The country has since 1992 seen 8 general elections and 8 PM taking oath, 20 law ministers and 26 Chief Justice of

India being sworn in.