Supreme Court on suo motu on Tuesday proposed fresh means to bridge vacancies of judges in lower courts, saying that “government has made us very conscious of the large number of vacancies”.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar suggested uniform and regular selections to lower judiciary across States.
The court recommended that a candidate can apply for vacancies in multiple States so that posts can be filled up on time.
The total sanctioned strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts is 21,320 as on June 30, 2016. Out of these 16,383 posts have been filled up, leaving 4,937 vacancies.
But even if the vacancies are all replenished, the statistics of pendency in the subordinate courts continue to be staggering. The National Judicial Data Grid shows that as on November 27, 2016, the pendency in district courts is 23,002,468 cases. Ten per cent of this pile-up – 23,237,81 - composes of cases pending over 10 years.
Official statistics show that 33.5 per cent of cases were lying stagnant for five-plus years in subordinate courts compared to 43 per cent stagnancy in High Courts.
Judicial statistics show that 63 per cent of of jail inmates waiting justice, or even a court hearing, are under-trial prisoners. Further, 226 cases relating to under-trial prisoners are pending for more than ten years and 52 under-trial prisoners are in jail for more than ten years. Over 18,000 cases of under-trial prisoners are pending for over three years.
Even if all 4937 vacancies are filled up immediately, providing basic infrastructure in the form of even courtrooms for the new judicial officers would be a serious handicap.
