In a move to reduce pendency, the Centre has agreed to enhance strength of High Court judges by an additional 25 per cent based on judge-case basis ratio. The Union law Ministry has written to all State High Courts to undertake exercise of recommending names towards meeting this objective. Sharing this information during proceedings in a PIl on Monday, Chief Justice P Sathasivam said, “The law Ministry has issued a circular to all High Courts to increase judge strength.”
The PIl filed by NGO Society for Justice had raised twin demands to curb pendency in courts. One of the demands was to increase the existing strength of judges to the sanctioned strength in High Courts and lower courts. Besides, it suggested having a time frame of two years to dispose matters in lower courts and a one-year deadline in High Courts and Supreme Court.
lauding the concern of the petitioner, the bench of CJI and Justices SK Singh and RK Agarwal assured the petitioner that things will improve in the light of the recent decision taken by law Ministry. About the other demand, the Court found it impractical to set a time-frame for disposal of a case. Disposing the PIl, the bench allowed the petitioner to approach after six months, if there was no progress on the Government’s front.
In April last year, at the Conference of Chief Justices and Chief Ministers, the then law Minister had assured to hike strength of judges in HCs. After taking over as CJI, Justice P Sathasivam wrote to the Prime Minister requesting urgent action in the backdrop of mounting pendency. Only recently, he received a confirmation from the law Ministry reporting on the communication issued to all High Courts.
At present, the sanctioned strength of judges in High Courts is 906 of which there exists a vacancy of 252. The decision of the Centre to add 25 per cent new posts of judges would provide an additional work force of 226 judges, seen as a significant step towards curbing the pendency of over 40 lakh cases.