There are 20 judges per 10 lakh people in the country as compared to 17 in 2014, the Law Ministry said on Wednesday.

In a written reply in Lok Sabha, minister of state for Law P P Chaudhary said, based on the population as per Census 2011 and sanctioned strength of judges in Supreme Court, the 24 high courts, and lower judiciary in 2018, the judge-population ratio in the country works out to be 19.78 judges per million population.

He said, the ratio was 17.48 judges per million population in 2014.

The sanctioned strength of judges of high courts has increased from 906 judges in June 2014 to 1079 judges in December, 2018 and the sanctioned strength of Judges of district/subordinate courts has increased from 20,214 in 2014 to 22,833 in 2018.

However, the working strength of judges in high courts is 673 while for the Supreme Court it is 28 against the sanctioned strength of 31.