Vacancies in Judiciary - Biggest challenge faced by Indian judiciary
Recently, a report tabled in Parliament by the Standing Committee for the Ministry of Law and Justice has provided details regarding the status of judicial appointments in the high courts.
Statistics on Judicial Appointments in India
- The report highlighted that the high courts have currently a sanctioned strength of 1,080 judges and are working with only 661 judges, leaving 419 posts vacant.
- It approximates to a 39 per cent vacancy and is a worrisome figure given the level of pendency in the courts in India.
- The report pointed out that as against 419 vacancies in the high courts, 211 recommendations were yet to be received from high court collegiums.
- The high courts of Punjab and Haryana, Allahabad, Delhi, and Gujarat, are yet to send recommendations for 30, 27, 23 and 21 posts respectively.
- The report points out that the Allahabad High Court has the most number of vacant posts (64) followed by Calcutta (40) and Punjab and Haryana (37).
- The report also identified that out of the total 208 proposals received, 92 proposals (44.23 per cent) were pending clearance with the Supreme Court Collegium and 116 proposals (55.76 per cent) are with the Department of Justice for examination.
Why India's courts are struggling to find judges?
- Failure of judicial system to keep pace with time: There now an existence of an unprecedented pile-up of over 30 million cases across courts in the country with 20 million new cases being filed each year.
- Lack of collegium system in subordinate judiciary: In the subordinate judiciary, appointments are made solely by the respective state governments.
- There are many loopholes that allow incompetent people to get hired and promoted and the judiciary is filled with underserving people in the lower judiciary.
- Lack of promotion from lower to higher judiciary: The chances of a lower court judge being promoted to the high court or Supreme Court are also paper thin.
- There exist a disproportionately high number of judges selected as direct appointments from the Bar in the high courts, as compared to elevations from the subordinate judiciary.
- Huge disincentive to young lawyers who see direct appointments in higher judiciary: The alarming trend is clearly visible in the present composition of the Supreme Court where out of 29 judges, only 3 judges have worked in the subordinate judiciary.
- Lack of remuneration in lower judiciary: The High court judges earn between Rs 80,000 and Rs 1 Lakh a month in addition to numerous perks that include house, car with a driver, guard, cleaner, steno as well as travel and telephone allowances.
- The benefits afforded to lower court judges are fewer and salaries considerably less lucrative.
Challenges faced by Judiciary in India
- Cumbersome procedure for judicial appointments: The appointment of the judges to the high courts is governed by Article 217 of the Constitution.
- In addition to constitutional provision, the appointment is initiated by the Chief Justice of the concerned high court who recommends the nominees to the state government.
- The state government then sends the recommendation to the Union Law Ministry, which then sends it to the Supreme Court Collegium.
- Disproportionate focus on judicial vacancies: It eclipses deeper questions regarding the way the sanctioned strength has been calculated in the first place.
- Lack of measurement of judicial productivity: The Indian judiciary does not have any way to measure the productivity of individual judges and the courts.
- The judge strength in India has been expanded in an ad hoc manner and there is little transparency regarding the parameters that are considered for these important calculations.
- Question mark on composition of the higher judiciary: While data regarding caste is not available, women are fairly underrepresented in the higher judiciary.
- Slow and erratic judicial system: As many as 28 million cases are pending across 27 states and Union Territories, with nearly a quarter of them pending for over 5 years.
- One in every four cases is pending for more than 5 years in Bihar, Uttar, Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat, Meghalaya and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Implications of Vacant Indian Judiciary
- Slow and erratic judicial system: As many as 28 million cases are pending across 27 states and Union Territories, with nearly a quarter of them pending for over 5 years.
- One in every four cases is pending for more than 5 years in Bihar, Uttar, Pradesh, West Bengal, Odisha, Gujarat, Meghalaya and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- Failure in delivering speedy trial: The Indian Judiciary is failing in keeping the promise of speedy trials as experts blame it on an overburdened justice system.
- The present judge-to-population ratio is an abysmal 17, with the shortfall hitting subordinate judiciary the hardest which accounts for 75 per cent of the total backlog.
- People languishing in jail for years waiting for trial: The judiciary has implored the government to urgently increase the sanctioned strength of subordinate judges in order to fix the system that is on the brink of collapse.
Measures needed to address the issues of Indian Judiciary
- Suo Motu Cognizance for Higher Judiciary in matters of appointment in Lower Judiciary: The Supreme Court should take suo motu cognizance of the vacancies in the district judiciary.
- The higher judiciary should ask state governments and high courts to file status reports with regard to the status of judicial vacancies and physical infrastructure in the states.
- Accurate calculation of judge strength is required: A rational method based on strong empirical criteria such as litigation patterns of the state, the volume of pendency and the current disposal rates of judges amongst others should be devised and adopted by the judiciary for all the tiers.
- Judiciary needs to more inclusive: The Standing Committee in its recommendations has asked the Department of Justice to submit its considered view on making the higher judiciary more inclusive.
- Proper funding of subordinate judiciary: There is a dire need to re-ignite the national debate on how the subordinate judiciary should be funded such that the independence and efficiency of these courts, which affect the citizens the most, are not hindered.
- A centrally-administered All India Judicial Commission is needed to regulate service conditions for the lower courts.
- Increasing the role of state governments in maintain independence of judiciary: The state governments should ideally take the initiative of ensuring that pay scales and terms and conditions of service of judges are sufficiently attractive for talented young lawyers to take up the judiciary as a career option.
Road Ahead
- The he recruitment of new judges should focus, as a matter of priority, on the number of judges required to breakeven, and to dispose of the backlog in a 3 year time frame.
- The judiciary should set up Special Traffic Courts which deals with cases involving fines only and ease the work load on regular courts.
- The trend of institutions and disposals should be constantly monitored by the High Courts, in order to meet the evolving needs of the judiciary.
- The Law Commission recognizes that apart from increasing the judge strength, there is also need for efficient deployment of the additional judicial resources.
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