Judicial vacancies have decreased since last year across 21 high courts in India but nevertheless 30 per cent of 895 judges’ posts sanctioned remain vacant, according to statistics released on Monday.

A total of 57 new judges were appointed across all high courts this year, accounting for an increase of barely 7 per cent of sanctioned judicial strength.

275 out of 895 sanctioned judge-posts lie vacant this year, according to statistics released by the department of justice (DoJ) in the ministry of law and justice on Monday.

An additional 10 posts have been filled since 2011 when, according to a Right to Information (RTI) response, 285 out of 895 sanctioned posts were vacant.

Allahabad high court, the largest of all with a sanctioned strength of 160, leads in the vacancy stakes with 76 unoccupied posts (as well as in the number of pending cases), while Punjab & Haryana – the third largest – comes in second with 26 out of 68 posts vacant.

Allahabad’s vacancy increased by 12 posts since last year, while at Punjab & Haryana one post was vacated.

This year saw the appointment of 11 additional but no permanent judges at Allahabad, according to further DoJ data. Allahabad still lacks 20 permanent and 56 additional judges.

Punjab & Haryana lacks seven permanent and 19 additional judges, and appointed three permanent and four additional judges this year.

The Bombay high court has a total shortfall of 19 judges, including seven permanent appointments, while in Delhi 13 vacancies are unfilled, of which five are permanent.

Judicial vacancies as at 1 October 2012

* Acting Chief Justice

# Temporary conversion of post

Photo by gerry