- March 28, 2025
New Govt-Judiciary Coordination Mechanism Needed To Avoid Delays in Judges’ Appointments: Parliament Committee – News18
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The panel’s report has recorded over 82,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court and over 62 lakh in various high courts by the end of 2024. It has also cited how out of the total sanctioned strength of 1,122 judges in high courts, the actual…Read More
The report says that seven high courts have vacancies of more than the national average of 37.43%, and in Allahabad High Court, vacancies are 50% of their total sanctioned strength. (Representational image: Getty)
At a time when the Justice Yashwant Varma case has grabbed headlines, a standing committee report submitted in Parliament on Thursday has cited the high number of vacancies of judges and huge pendency of cases to recommend a new “coordination mechanism” between the judiciary and the union law ministry to track the status of appointment delays.
The report has recorded over 82,000 cases pending in the Supreme Court and over 62 lakh in various high courts by the end of 2024. It has also cited how out of the total sanctioned strength of 1,122 judges in high courts, the actual working strength of 25 HCs in the country is only 750.
“The Committee observes that the process of judicial appointment and pendency of cases are critical issues that require urgent attention. There must be synergy between the Judiciary and the Government to ensure timely processing of recommendations and appointments. The Committee feels that a coordination mechanism should be developed between the Judiciary and the Ministry of Law and Justice to track the status of appointment delays,” the report recommends.
The committee has also recommended that an institutional mechanism be developed wherein the process of the retirement of a judge and the appointment of his/her successor is aligned, which would ensure that the vacancy is filled immediately after the retirement.
The report says high courts with the most significant backlog—Allahabad, Bombay, and Rajasthan—should be prioritised for judicial appointments.
Vacancy-backlog status
The report says that seven high courts have vacancies of more than the national average of 37.43%, and in Allahabad High Court, vacancies are 50% of their total sanctioned strength.
The government has informed the committee that as of February 3, 2025, there are 367 vacancies in the high courts, against which recommendations for 164 fresh proposals for the appointment of judges in the HCs have been received.
“High Court Collegiums are yet to make recommendations against the remaining 203 vacancies. As on 3 February 2025, 30 proposals, including four reiterated cases recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment of High Court Judges, are under various stages of processing,” the government told the committee.
82,640 cases are pending before the Supreme Court of India as of the end of 2024. At the high court level, there is one HC where the pendency of cases is more than 10 lakh (Allahabad) and 14 where the pendency of cases is more than 1 lakh, as of January 21, 2025.
The top three among them are Allahabad (11,51,691 cases), Rajasthan (6,62,455 cases), and Bombay (6,56,112 cases).
