Lower courts have over 5,000 vacancies; no forward movement in setting up AIJS

New Delhi: The subordinate and district courts face shortage of over 5,000 judges, while the 25 high courts have collective vacancies of over 360, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

In a written reply, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwwal also said the Supreme Court, with a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the chief justice of India, has two vacancies.

Following the retirement of Justice D Y Chandrachud as the CJI and Justice Hima Kohli earlier, the top court has two vacancies.

The minister also said that amid divergence of view among states and high courts, there is no forward movement in the creation of an all-India judicial service.

He said as on November 21, the lower judiciary had a shortage of 5,245 judicial officers while the HCs were short of 364 judges. The sanctioned strength of the 25 HCs is 1,114 judges.

Responding to a sub question, Meghwal noted that Article 312 of the Constitution provides for the establishment of an All India Judicial Service (AIJS), which will not include any post inferior to that of a district judge.

The constitutional provision enables creation of the AIJS at district judge level.

A comprehensive proposal was formulated for the constitution of an AIJS and it was approved by the Committee of Secretaries in November 2012.

The views of the states and the HCs were sought on the proposal, which were divergent.

Later, is was decided to leave it open to the respective HCs to evolve appropriate methods within the existing system to fill up the vacancies for appointment of district judges expeditiously.

However, no progress was made in the matter. "In view of the existing divergence of opinion amongst the major stakeholders, at present, there is no consensus on the proposal for setting up an All India Judicial Service," he said.