New Delhi, Oct 30: The Union government today said it has created 94 more judges post in the high courts to cut down delay in justice delivery process but apprehended that the move may not prove fruitful if the high courts do not recommend names to fill vacant posts. Prior to the increase in the number of judges post from 655 to 749, there were 163 vacancies and the government has received only 63 names recommended by the higher judiciary, Law and Justice Minister Arun Jaitley told reporters.
"I have been repeatedly writing to the Chief Justices of the High Courts to send recommendations for filling the vacant posts. The Chief Justice of India has also been repeatedly reminding the high courts to initiate process for filling the existing vacancies," he said. Pointing out that there are 33,68,621 cases pending before the high courts of which 21,64182 were more than two year old, he said the vacancies need to be filled up as soon as possible to help cut down the backlog.
The increase in the number of judges by 94 is the largest ever done through a process set in motion by the apex court by which the strength is reviewed by the government triennially.
The first review of judges strength was in 1995. When it was increased to 618. In the 1999 review the strength was increased to 655. Now, the strength has been increased to 749.
The maximum number of additional posts of 13 judges each are proposed to be made in the Calcutta High Court, Madhya Pradesh High Court and Punjab and Haryana High Court. Bureau Report