Case backlog: Judicial prod may be needed for filling vacancies, says ex-SC judge Sanjay Kaul

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) Identifying case backlog in courts as the biggest challenge facing the judiciary, former Supreme Court judge Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Tuesday suggested early filling of vacancies to address the pendency issue and added that a judicial prod may be needed unless the vacancy-filling issues are addressed administratively.

“At any point of time there is a shortage of one-third of judges in High Courts. Over the years this shortage has been increasing,” Justice Kaul told IANS.

There were nearly 5 crore pending cases in lower courts in India till January. While there were over 80,000 pending cases in the Supreme Court, the backlog in High Courts stood at over 60 lakh.

While talking about delays in appointment in the higher judiciary, Justice Kaul hinted at the possibility of the government being unhappy over the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to quash the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).

The Commission was proposed, through a constitutional amendment, to replace the existing Collegium system for appointing judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts.

“The government appears to be taking time to get over that episode,” said Justice Kaul, indirectly linking it to the perceived delay on the government’s end in clearing names for judicial appointments sent by High Courts.

He said a judicial prod may be needed unless the vacancy-filling issues are addressed administratively.

Justice Kaul also highlighted the need to improve judicial infrastructure and stressed on timely use of funds for setting up facilities to prevent lapse of allocated funds.

“The level of infrastructure varies from state to state. But at one point of time, the Chief Justice of India had initiated a process of monitoring the strength of judges, state of infrastructure and availability of court staff in each state,” he said.

He agreed that infusing efficiency into the judicial system through digitisation makes it simpler but nothing substantial can be achieved as long as a judge is expected to hear 100 cases in a day.

The Government claims that it has been regularly filling up vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts.

According to the Department of Justice, from May 1, 2014 to March 20, 2025 as many as 67 Judges were appointed in the Supreme Court.

As many as 1,030 new Judges were appointed and 791 Additional Judges were made permanent in the High Courts during the same period.

The sanctioned strength of Judges of the High Courts has been increased from 906 in May 2014 to 1,122 till February 2025.

According to Department of Justice data, as on February 28, 2025 the sanctioned strength in district and subordinate judiciary was 25,786 while the working strength was 20,511.

--IANS

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