Suggest names for judges at the earliest: CJI Ramana to high court chief justices

The CJI pointed out that vacancies in the high courts is one of the crucial issues that must be deliberated upon during the conference.

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Friday implored chief justices of high courts to make recommendations for appointment of judges “at the earliest”.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) Justice NV Ramana inaugurated the 39th chapter of the conference of high court chief justices. (ANI)

Chairing the conference of chief justices of high courts which was organised after a gap of six years, the CJI highlighted the huge vacancies of judges across the 25 high courts in the country and urged chief justices to forward names for elevation to the high courts without delay.

“I request the chief justices of high courts, which are still having numbers of vacancies, to forward the names for elevation at the earliest,” said justice Ramana while inaugurating the 39th chapter of the conference of high court chief justices. The conference was also attended by the two most-senior judges of the top court, justices Uday U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar.

As on April 1, 25 high courts in the country have 35% of their positions vacant. According to data available with the Department of Justice, of the total sanctioned strength of 1104 judges, there are 387 vacancies.

Some high courts have massive vacancies: Patna (49%), Rajasthan (48%), Calcutta (45%), Allahabad (41%), Delhi (42%), Punjab and Haryana (42%) and Bombay (39%).

The CJI pointed out that vacancies in the high courts is one of the crucial issues that must be deliberated upon during the conference, even as he recounted that he took up the issue during his first online interaction with high court chief justices in June 2021.

“I have also requested all of you, in our very first online interaction, to expedite the process of recommending names for elevation to high courts, with an emphasis on social diversity. I am happy to note that the response from some of the high courts has been extremely encouraging. Due to our collective efforts, we could fill 126 vacancies in various high courts, in less than a year. We are expecting 50 more appointments. This remarkable feat could be achieved because of your wholehearted co-operation and commitment to the institution,” added the CJI.

After the HC collegium, headed by the HC chief justice clears the names for the elevation to the high court, the collegium in the Supreme Court makes the final recommendation to the Central government. The collegium in the top court currently comprises the CJI, and justices Lalit and Khanwilkar.

Under the memorandum of procedure on appointment of judges in constitutional courts, the Centre has the option of either accepting the recommendations of the Supreme Court collegium or sending them back for a review. However, if the collegium reiterates the names, the government must appoint them as judges even as there is no fixed time frame for making such appointments.

The HC chief justices conference shall be followed by a joint conference of chief ministers and HC chief justices on Saturday, which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The last joint conference of chief ministers and HC chief justices was held in April 2016 and was remarkable with the then CJI, TS Thakur, making an impassioned plea to the government to help upgrade judicial infrastructure and start addressing the glaring problem of shortage of judges. His voice faltering at one point, Justice Thakur regretted “inaction” on the government’s part in strengthening the judicial infrastructure and increasing the judge-population ratio to tackle the “avalanche” of cases.

Meanwhile, in his inaugural address at the conference on Friday, the CJI mentioned another five points of deliberation: strengthening of the IT infrastructure, human resource requirements in district courts, creating state-of-the-art judicial infrastructure, appointment of judges, and emoluments of HC judges and their post-retirement benefits.

The CJI further referred to the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic on the functioning of the courts, and appreciated the grit and determination shown by HC chief justices to make certain that the working of the constitutional courts is not derailed.

“At the same time, we could evolve stable online systems to make sure that the functioning of the courts is not adversely affected. We did our best to promote access to justice,” added justice Ramana.