Fill up High Court judges' vacancies expeditiously, SC tells govt
The Supreme Court on Thursday (May 8, 2025) urged the Centre to clear recommendations made by the top court Collegium for High Court judges' appointments while noting that vacancies are affecting justice administration across the country.
'The Central government needs to act and ensure that the recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium for judge appointments are cleared expeditiously,' Justice A.S. Oka, who is also a Collegium member, said in an order.
The Bench, also comprising Justice Ujjal Bhuyan, was hearing a suo motu case highlighting the need to ease the process of bail, especially for undertrials. The court was concerned with the fact that there were over seven lakh criminal appeals pending in the High Courts.
A recent data published by the Supreme Court showed that 29 recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium to State High Courts since November 9, 2022 were pending with the government.
Explained | The clogged state of the Indian judiciary
Citing shortfall
The Bench took the case of the Allahabad High Court, which had only 79 working judges when the sanctioned strength was 160. There were over two lakh criminal appeals pending in the High Court.
In Bombay High Court, only 66 judges out of a total 94 were functioning. Delhi has only 41 judges while the Calcutta High Court has 44 when the sanctioned strengths were 60 and 72, respectively.
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Time of India
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First Post
an hour ago
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Taiwan wants to buy India's D4 anti-drone system? Taiwanese official calls reports ‘unconfirmed'
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