Ministry of Law and Justice
azadi ka amrit mahotsav

Strength of Judges

Posted On: 24 MAR 2023 6:16PM by PIB Delhi

As on 21.03.2023, there is no vacancy of Judges in the Supreme Court. As far as the High Courts are concerned, against the sanctioned strength of 1114 Judges, 785 Judges are working and 329 posts of Judges are vacant. Against these 329 vacancies, 119 proposals

recommended by High Court Collegiums are at various stages of processing between the Government and the Supreme Court Collegium and recommendations against remaining 210 vacancies are yet to be received from the High Court Collegiums. TheHigh Court-wise detail of sanctioned strength, working strength and vacancy as on 21.03.2023 is at Annexure.

Appointment of Judges in higher judiciary is a collaborative and integrated process involving the executive and the judiciary. It requires consultation and approval from various constitutional authorities. Differences of opinion, if any, are mutually reconciled by the executive and the judiciary to ensure that only the apposite person is appointed to the high constitutional post of a Judge.

While every effort is made to fill up the existing vacancies expeditiously, vacancies of Judges in High Courts do keep on arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of Judges and also due to increase in the strength of Judges. Government is committed to filling up of vacancy expeditiously in time-bound manner.

During the period from May, 2014 to 2023 (till 21.03.2023), 54 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court of India, 893 fresh Judges were appointed in the various High Courts and 646 Additional Judges were appointed as Permanent Judges of High Courts.

The detailed statement of Pendency of Cases in Supreme Court and High Court for the past three years, showing the increase/decrease of pendency of cases in the respective courts is as below:

Year

2020

2021

2022

Supreme Court*

64,429

96,855

69,598

High Courts**

56,42,567

56,49,068

59,78,714

 

*Source: Supreme Court of India pendency as on 4.12.2020, 6.12.2021 and 1.12.2022 respectively.

 

**Source: National Judicial Data Grid pendency as on 31st December of respective years i.e. 2020, 2021 and 2022.

 

The pendency of cases in courts is not only due to shortage of judges in High Courts but also due to various other factors like (i) increase in number of state and central legislations, (ii) accumulation of first appeals, (iii) continuation of ordinary civil jurisdiction in some of the High Courts, (iv) appeals against orders of quasi-judicial forums going to High Courts, (v) number of revisions/appeals, (vi) frequent adjournments, (vii) indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction, (viii) lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, tracking and bunching of cases for hearing, (ix) assigning work of administrative nature to the Judges, etc.

 

This information was given by the Union Minister of Law & Justice, Shri Kiren Rijiju, in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

*****

 

ANNEXURE

 

Statement showing Sanctioned strength, Working Strength and Vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts (As on 21.03.2023)

 

   

Sanctioned strength

Working strength

Vacancies

A.

Supreme Court 

34

34

0

B.

High Court

Pmt.

Addl

Total

Pmt.

Addl

Total

Pmt.

Addl

Total

1

Allahabad

119

41

160

82

21

103

37

20

57

2

Andhra Pradesh

28

9

37

26

5

31

2

4

6

3

Bombay

71

23

94

42

23

65

29

0

29

4

Calcutta

54

18

72

34

19

53

20

-1

19

5

Chhattisgarh

17

5

22

9

4

13

8

1

9

6

Delhi

46

14

60

45

0

45

1

14

15

7

Gauhati

22

8

30

14

9

23

8

-1

7

8

Gujarat

39

13

52

29

0

29

10

13

23

9

Himachal Pradesh

13

4

17

9

0

9

4

4

8

10

J & K and Ladakh

13

4

17

11

4

15

2

0

2

11

Jharkhand

20

5

25

20

1

21

0

4

4

12

Karnataka

47

15

62

40

13

53

7

2

9

13

Kerala

35

12

47

31

6

37

4

6

10

14

Madhya Pradesh

39

14

53

31

0

31

8

14

22

15

Madras

56

19

75

47

11

58

9

8

17

16

Manipur

4

1

5

3

0

3

1

1

2

17

Meghalaya

3

1

4

3

0

3

0

1

1

18

Orissa

24

9

33

21

0

21

3

9

12

19

Patna

40

13

53

32

0

32

8

13

21

20

Punjab & Haryana

64

21

85

38

27

65

26

-6

20

21

Rajasthan

38

12

50

33

0

33

5

12

17

22

Sikkim

3

0

3

3

0

3

0

0

0

23

Telangana

32

10

42

30

2

32

2

8

10

24

Tripura

4

1

5

2

0

2

2

1

3

25

Uttarakhand

9

2

11

5

0

5

4

2

6

 

Total

840

274

1114

640

145

785

200

129

329

******

SS/RKM



(Release ID: 1910433) Visitor Counter : 18861


Read this release in: Urdu , Marathi