With Collegium recommendations pending, SC urges government to clear judicial appointments

With over 7.24 lakh criminal appeals pending in various high courts across India, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to expeditiously clear the names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as high court judges.

"Two days back, recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium for High Court judges were put up on the website. Many recommendations are pending with the Central Government. Twelve recommendations made in 2025 are pending. This is one aspect where the Central Government needs to act and ensure that recommendations of the Collegium are dealt with expeditiously. We hope and trust that the pending proposals may be cleared at the earliest," a Bench of Justices Abhay S Oka said on Thursday.

While hearing a PIL, the Bench pointed out that data showed 29 Collegium recommendations made since November 2022 — including 4 from 2023, 13 from 2024, and 12 from 2025, along with certain reiterated proposals — were handing fire.

It said the Allahabad High Court with 2.7 lakh cases pending criminal appeals had a sanctioned strength of 160 judges but was only functioning with 79 judges at present. Similarly, the Bombay High Court with a sanctioned strength 94, was functioning with only 66 judges and the Calcutta High Court was functioning with 44 judges against the total strength of 72 judges, it noted.

The Delhi High Court currently had 41 judges against the prescribed 60 judges. "It has a huge pendency of criminal appeals. Hence this is an issue which will have to be handled at a different level," it said.

"Madhya Pradesh has a pendency of 1,15,382 cases. Even in smaller states, pendency is high. Patna High Court has pendency of 44,664; Punjab & Haryana High Court has 79, 326 and Rajasthan has pendency of over 56,000 pending cases. Bombay has a pendency of 28,257. Chhattisgarh has more than 18,000 cases. Therefore, this is a huge problem faced by all HCs," it noted.

On appointing ad hoc judges for hearing criminal appeals, the Bench said the issue was being deliberated upon by the CJI with the government and it won't deal with it.