Parliamentary panel concerned about vacancies in High Courts, appeals to executive and judiciary

The panel, headed by senior bjp leader Sushil Kumar Modi, said these are all large states where the proportion of judges to population is already disproportionate and such vacancies are a matter of deep concern.

Amid the impasse between the government and the supreme court collegium over the appointment of judges, a parliamentary panel has urged the executive and the judiciary to address the issue at the earliest. The panel says that there is a perennial problem of vacancies in the High Courts, in such a situation, the executive and the judiciary will have to think out of the box to deal with it.

The Department-related Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, in its report tabled in parliament on Thursday, said it does not agree with the observations of the Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry that the timeline for filling up of vacancies of judges in the higher judiciary should not be fixed. Could

The report noted that in the case of other judges and also in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) regarding the appointment of judges, timelines have been drawn up, but regrettably, those timelines have not been adhered to by both the judiciary and the executive. leading to delay in filling up of vacancies.

As per the data provided by the government, as on december 31, 2021, there were three high courts in Telangana, patna and delhi where vacancies of essential judges were more than 50 per cent and 10 high courts had vacancies more than 40 per cent, according to the report. The panel, headed by senior bjp leader Sushil Kumar Modi, said these are all large states where the proportion of judges to population is already disproportionate and such vacancies are a matter of deep concern.

The Committee said that the government and the Judiciary should think out of the box to deal with this perennial problem of vacancies in the High Courts. The Committee also noted that it was surprised to note that the supreme court and the government had failed to reach a consensus on the amendment of the Memorandum. The Procedure for Appointment of Judges (MoP) to the supreme court and High Courts has been under consideration for almost seven years. The committee expects the government and the judiciary to finalize the amendment.

There are 25 High Courts in the country. As of december 5, against the sanctioned strength of 1,108, 778 judges are working in the high courts. The government had on november 25 asked the supreme court collegium to reconsider 20 files related to the appointment of high court judges. The government had also expressed strong reservations about the recommended names. Of the 20 cases, 11 were fresh cases and nine were reiterated by the apex court collegium.