41 per cent vacancies of judges in the High Courts, the same situation in the tribunals

The Supreme Court slammed the central government for not appointing judges in the high courts

If the vacancies in the courts are not filled, the work of the administration may also come to a standstill

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today slammed the Center for its failure to appoint judges in high courts across the country, saying the Center was undermining the third pillar of democracy by not appointing judges. If this approach of the government continues then one day the administration of the government will also come to a standstill.

A bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Hrishikesh Roy told the government that the government authority should understand that this is not the way to go. If you want to shut down the judiciary, your system will also shut down. The government has exceeded its limits. You cannot let the third pillar of democracy stand still.

Additional Solicitor General Madhavi Diwan, appearing for the Center, told the bench that there was a severe shortage of judges but he was not interested. If the judiciary is paralyzed, so is your administration. The time has come for the government to cultivate realism in this matter. As on August 1, 455 seats have been left vacant in 25 high courts across the country against the sanctioned posts of 1,098 judges.

41 per cent of the total sanctioned posts are vacant. Due to which there is a shortage of judges in the High Courts in Delhi, Allahabad, Calcutta, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Telangana. Currently, these high courts are staffed by one-third of the judges.

The apex court was outraged during the hearing of an appeal filed by the central government in an anti-dumping duty case filed by the Delhi High Court. The government has not paid attention to the appointment of judges.

The apex court noted in its judgment that it takes months and years to make recommendations and take them to the collegium so no decision is taken on appointment for months and years due to which the High Court judiciary runs with so few judges that even in important cases early. It has become impossible to do justice.

The court added in its order that the government should understand that there needs to be a sufficient number of judges to make an early decision in a commercial case. If there are not enough of them, they will not be able to do justice within the stipulated time frame. Even in the Delhi High Court, only 30 judges are currently working against the sanctioned seats of 60 judges.