Telangana High Court Bench Strength Increases By 75% As CJI Takes Up Long Pending Proposal

It is stated that out of the 42 Judges, 32 will be Permanent Judges and 10 will be Additional Judges. Elevation from the Bar is to be fixed at 28, while that of the Judicial Services is to be 14.

The proposal was pending for two years and was revived at the behest of the CJI. In February 2019, the High Court had sent the proposal, which had been endorsed by the Chief Minister and the then Governor of Telangana, to the Union Minister of Law and Justice. On the basis of a reference received from the PMO, the matter was revisited in November 2019, and the Ministry informed the Chief Justice of the High Court to give preference to filling up vacancies first.

It was in May 2021 that the CJI, after assuming charge, reviewed the proposal and took it up with the Prime Minister and Law Minister, who readily agreed to get the matters examined expeditiously.

On 27^th May, 2021, the CJI took up the matter with the Law Minister in writing, and stated that the proposal for hike in the sanctioned Bench Strength had been pending since February 2019. He highlighted that even with the vacancies being filled, the pendency had gone up alarmingly to more than 2 lakh cases.

The Law Ministry concurred with the concerns and conveyed the same to the CJI on 7^th June, 2021, with the CJI giving his final approval on 8^th June.