Expedite judicial appointments, SC urges Centre

With over 7.24 lakh criminal appeals pending in various high courts across India, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to expeditiously clear names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as high court judges.

“Two days ago, recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium for High Court judges were put up on the website. Many recommendations – including 12 made in 2025 — are pending with the Central Government,” a Bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka said on Thursday.

While hearing a PIL, the Bench pointed out that data showed 29 Collegium recommendations made since November 2022 — including four from 2023, 13 from 2024 and 12 from 2025, along with certain reiterated proposals — were handing fire.

It said the Allahabad High Court with 2.7 lakh cases of pending criminal appeals had a sanctioned strength of 160 judges, but was functioning with only 79 judges. Similarly, the Bombay High Court with a sanctioned strength of 94 has only 66 judges and the Calcutta High Court was functioning with 44 judges against the sanctioned strength of 72 judges, it noted.

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 that will have to be handled at a different level,” it said.

“MP has a pendency of 1,15,382 cases. The pendency is high even in smaller states, the Patna HC has a pendency of 44,664 cases; the Punjab & Haryana High Court has 79,326 and Rajasthan has over 56,000 cases. The Bombay HC has a pendency of 28,257, while Chhattisgarh has more than 18,000 pending cases. Therefore, this is a huge problem faced by all HCs,” it noted.

Talking about appointing ad hoc judges for hearing criminal appeals, the Bench said the issue was being deliberated upon by the CJI with the government.

India