SC flags vacancies in high courts, prods Centre to clear names for appointment of judges
Observing that the Indian high courts have more than seven lakh criminal appeals pending, the Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to expeditiously clear names for judges’ appointments to mitigate issues of vacancies and pendency.
A Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the Allahabad High Court with 2.7 lakh cases pending criminal appeals had a sanctioned strength of 160 judges but was only functioning with 79 judges at present.
“This is one aspect where the Central Government needs to act and ensure that recommendations of the collegium are cleared expeditiously. We hope and trust that the pending proposals will be cleared by the Central Government at the earliest,” the Bench said.
Similarly, the Bombay High Court with a sanctioned strength 94, was functioning with only 66 judges, it added.
The Calcutta High Court, it noted, was functioning with 44 judges as opposed to the total strength of 72 judges. The Bench observed the Delhi High Court currently had 41 judges against the prescribed 60 judges.
“It has a huge pendency of criminal appeals. Hence this is an issue which will have to be handled at a different level,” it added.
The apex court said two days ago, recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium for appointment of high court judges was made public on the top court website.
“Four recommendations of 2023 and 13 recommendations made in 2024 are pending with the Centre. The most recent recommendations made on September 24, 2024 are also pending,” it said.
The top court was hearing a suo motu petition relating to delays marring bail processes and expeditious release of undertrials granted bail.
The court passed the directions after examining suggestions from senior advocate and amicus curiae Liz Mathew.
The apex court noted as on March 22, the total number of criminal appeals was 7,24,192.
“Madhya Pradesh has pendency of 1,15,382 cases. Even in smaller states, pendency is high. Patna High Court has pendency of 44,664; Punjab & Haryana High Court has 79, 326 and Rajasthan has pendency of over 56,000 cases. Bombay has pendency of 28,257, Chhattisgarh more than 18,000 cases. Therefore, this a huge problem faced by all HCs,” it said.
Aside from the suggestions on mitigating the pendency, the administrative side of the CJI prepared and approved a model action plan for reduction of arrears which was shared with all high courts.
Admitting adjournments were one of the main reasons behind the rising pendency, the top court said if high courts upon noting non-cooperation by advocates appearing for the accused, should appoint a legal aid lawyer.
On the suggestion to appoint ad hoc judges for hearing criminal appeals, the Bench said the issue was being deliberated upon by Chief Justice of India with the government and it won’t deal with it.
The top court said it was necessary for all high courts to incorporate digitisation of criminal records and suggested the use of AI tool Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software to all high court for translation.
The apex court asked high courts to place on record the action plans within four weeks from Thursday.
India