There are just 18 judges per 10 lakh population in the country, according to data released by the law Ministry recently.
The data put out in public domain said that the judge-to-population ratio in India stands at 17.86 judges per 10 lakh people despite the law Commission in an earlier report recommended a minimum of 50 judges per 10 lakh population.
Mizoram has the highest judge to population ratio which stands at 57.74 while West Bengal has the lowest judge to population ratio at 10.45 judges per 10 lakh people, the data released by the Ministry said. In Delhi, this figure stands at 47.33, while in Uttar Pradesh which has the largest population among states, has a meager ration of 10.54 judges per 10 lakh persons.
As on December 31, 2015, the subordinate courts in the country face an acute shortage of 4432 judicial officers. The situation in the 24 High Courts across the country depicts a shortfall of 477 judges.
The law Commission in its 245th report had said that the judge-population ration was not a scientific factor to determine the judge strength required in the country. It recommended the ‘rate of disposal’ method to calculate the exact number of additional judges required to clear the backlog.
Relying on this report, the Minister of State for law, PP Chaudhary, had stated in a written response given to Parliament on July 28 recently that the law Commission has reviewed the criteria of judge-population ratio for determining the number of judges which was put at 50 judges per million people by a judgment of Supreme Court in 2002 and backed by a Parliamentary panel as well.