HC judge vacancies at decade-low 26%, but pendency keeps piling up

With 64 lakh cases, backlog refuses to ease NEW DELHI: After hovering between 36% and 40% over the past decade, vacancies in HC judges have shown a significant decline, falling to 26%, this despite sanctioned strength of judges in HCs increasing from 906 in 2014 to 1,122. The largest HC, Allahabad, has brought down its vacancies to 56 against a sanctioned strength of 160 judges, as of Nov 1. The other HCs with bigger benches and usually large vacancies - Bombay, Punjab and Haryana, Madras, Calcutta, Karnataka and Delhi - too, have increased their working strength, bringing down vacancies. The last time judges' vacancies were this low (at 26%) was in July 2009, when there were 234 judges posts to be filled against a sanctioned strength of 886 in 21 HCs then. Vacancies in HCs started gradually climbing thereafter, which coincided with the friction between higher judiciary and govt over an attempt to bring a judicial accountability bill and passage of National Judicial Appointments Commission Act by Parliament. NJAC Act was later struck down by Supreme Court.

In Nov 2014, vacancies were at 36% (in 24 HCs), with 353 judges posts vacant against a sanctioned strength of 984. These vacancies remained at 35% in March 2022 with 387 posts vacant, though the sanctioned strength was increased to 1,104 judges. Large vacancies are a prime factor behind backlog of cases. Though SC historically never had large vacancies, case pendency in SC has increased from 52,000 in 2009 to more than 92,000 at present. The situation is worse in HCs and much worse in district and lower judiciary, deteriorating every month. In 2009, total pendency of cases in HCs was at 39.5 lakh, which climbed to 45 lakh in 2013, and is at 64 lakh at present. The pendency in lower judiciary is similarly getting worse while the large number of vacancies remain static at around 5,000 against a sanctioned strength of 25,894 judicial officers.