SC Collegium recommends 14 advocates for elevation as Bombay HC judges

Currently, the high court is functioning with 69 judges against the sanctioned strength of 94 judges

MUMBAI: The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of 14 advocates for elevation to the Bombay High Court bench. Currently, the high court is functioning with 69 judges against the sanctioned strength of 94 judges.

Bombay High Court at Fort, in Mumbai, India, (Photo by Anshuman Poyrekar/Hindustan Times) (Anshuman Poyrekar/HT PHOTO)

After the collegium met on August 19, the following advocates were recommended: Siddheshwar Sundarrao Thombre, Mehroz Ashraf Khan Pathan, Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale, Sandesh Dadasaheb Patil, Shreeram Vinayak Shirsat, Hiten Shamrao Venegavkar, Rajnish Ratnakar Vyas, Raj Damodar Wakode, Nandesh Shankarrao Deshpande, Amit Satyavan Jamsandekar, Ashish Sahadev Chavan, Vaishali Nimbajirao Patil-Jadhav, Abasaheb Dharmaji Shinde, and Farhan Parvez Dubash.

Last week, three new judges – Ajit Kadethankar, Sushil Ghodeswar, and Aarti Arun Sathe – took oath as additional judges of the high court, which currently functions with 50 permanent judges and 19 additional judges.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, more than 6.6 lakh cases are pending with the high court at its principal seat in Mumbai and benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad, and Goa and to clear the pendency, at the current strength of 69 judges, each high court judge would have to dispose of at least 24 cases everyday without any holidays or vacation for a year.

Of the pending cases, only 24% were instituted last year, and over 76% are more than a year old. A fourth of the pending cases commenced before 2015, another between 2015 and 2020, and the rest of the cases after 2020.

More than 1.2 lakh cases were instituted in the past year, and a little more than 1.5 lakh of them were disposed of by the high court. In the last five years, the disposal rate of cases before the high court has increased and is currently at par with pre-COVID times. The institution of cases across benches is significantly lower now compared to previous years; more are expected to be instituted as litigations affected by COVID-19 pick up pace.