230 posts of judge vacant in district courts

As cases continue to pile up in district courts, there are vacancies for 230 judges in Haryana and 81 in Punjab. The information was submitted before the Rajya Sabha in reply to an unstarred question from MP Sushmita Dev on February 6.

In Haryana's district courts, of the sanctioned strength of 781 judicial officers, 551 are working. In Punjab, of the sanctioned strength of 804 judges, 723 are working. This amounts to over 29 per cent vacant posts in Haryana and over 10 per cent in Punjab.

In response to another question from Ambala MP Varun Chaudhary today, as of February 4, of the sanctioned strength of 85, only 51 judges are working in the Punjab and Haryana High Court—leaving a 40 per cent vacancy.

Replying to Chaudhary’s question, Minister of State for the Ministry of Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal further submitted that there were 583 court halls in Haryana, and 198 more were required as per the sanctioned strength of judges. However, only 75 were under construction. There were 574 residential units for judges in the state, with 207 more required. However, only 65 were under construction.

According to the National Judicial Data Grid, as of now, 14.49 lakh cases are pending in Haryana’s district courts, with 13 cases pending for more than 30 years. The oldest pending case was registered on November 6, 1979, in Kaithal. It is a civil suit and scheduled for orders on February 18.

Meghwal submitted in Parliament that the vacancy of judges is not the sole reason for the increased pendency of cases in courts. “Pendency of cases in courts is attributable to several factors which, inter-alia, include availability of physical infrastructure and supporting court staff, complexity of facts involved, nature of evidence, cooperation of stakeholders, viz. Bar, investigation agencies, witnesses and litigants and proper application of rules and procedures,” he added.

Other factors that contribute to delays in the disposal of cases include the lack of a prescribed timeframe by respective courts for resolving various kinds of cases, frequent adjournments, and inadequate arrangements to monitor, track, and group cases for hearings.

He further stated that the responsibility for filling positions of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts lay with the respective high courts and state governments.

In response to an unstarred question from MP Neeraj Shekhar, Meghwal stated that in April 2024, the Supreme Court committee on "Model Case Flow Management Rules for Trial Courts, District Appellate Courts, High Courts and to suggest a plan for reduction of arrears in the High Courts and District Courts" prepared and shared an ‘Action Plan for Arrears Reduction in District Judiciary’ to dispose of old pending cases in a time-bound manner.

He added that the action plan “inter-alia, indicated focusing upon prioritisation of long-standing cases with special emphasis on cases pending for excessively long periods, such as over 10, 20 or 30 years; accelerating the progression of long-standing and newer cases to finalization; equitable case distribution among judges; and effective handling of unready and stayed cases”.

Issue taken up in Rajya Sabha

The information on vacancies was submitted before the Rajya Sabha in reply to an unstarred question from MP Sushmita Dev on Thursday.