20.2.14

Centre to raise HC Judge strength

The Centre has agreed to increase the strength of high court judges by 25%, responding quickly to Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam’s hard-hitting letter to the prime minister predicting doom for judiciary in the absence of adequate number of hands to deal with monstrous pendency.
Law minister Kapil Sibal has written to chief justices of high courts to immediately start consultations with state governments for putting up adequate infrastructure that would be required after the Centre sanctions 25% increase over the present judge strength of 906 in 24 HCs.
This would entail an increase of around 225 judges in the HCs, which cumulatively face a pendency of around 40 lakh cases. Against a sanctioned strength of 906 judges, over 200 posts are lying vacant. The law minister’s decision at this juncture assumes significance, this being an election year.
The CJI in his letter had reminded the PM about the April 2013 joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of HCs where then law minister Ashwani Kumar had stated that PM Manmohan Singh had, in principle, agreed to immediately expand the sanctioned strength of HC judges by 25%.
Finding that nothing had been done on this front, the CJI wrote. “It needs no mention that parallel extra-constitutional courts and khaps have, in the recent past, come into existence, and have been passing orders and decrees. Cases relating thereto have also been filed in the SC,” the CJI had said.

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