Union Law Minister's Responses On Judicial Vacancies, Women Representation, AIBE, Case Arrears Etc

The Monsoon session of the Parliament which began last week is special in the sense that it is the first full session of parliament since the COVID hit the country last year. On the 1st day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, PM Narendra Modi expressed his hopefulness regarding a fruitful session of Parliament.Many significant issues were raised last week in the parliament and in this article, we have tried to compile the responses tabled by the Union Law Ministry before the Loksabha regarding the status of Judicial Vacancy, Women Representation in the Indian Judicial System, Women reservation Bill, Lakshwadeep, etc.Judicial Vacancy (High Courts and Supreme Court) Status On Wednesday Lok Sabha members Benny Behanan and Haji Fazlur Rehman enquired from Law Minister Kiren Rijju about the current status of judicial vacancies across the country. Information was also sought regarding the representation of women and minority communities in the judiciary. The Minister was further asked as to whether any recruitment process had been undertaken to fill up the concerned vaccines. Minister Rijju's response in this regard reflects the abysmal condition of judicial vacancies in the country. The data provided also revealed the poor representation of women in the Indian judiciary which has always been a persistent concern. A total of 454 posts of High Court judges are lying vacant in all 25 High Courts across the country against the sanctioned strength of 1098 judges. The Apex Court alone has 8 vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 34 judges. Furthermore, no appointment has been made to the Supreme Court since 2020. On the retirement of Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman and Justice Naveen Sinha next month, two more vacancies are scheduled to arise. At present, the Supreme Court has only one woman judge i.e. Justice Indira Banerjee out of the existing 27 judges. High Courts of Manipur, Meghalaya, Patna, Tripura and Uttarakhand have no women representation whereas the High Courts of Gauhati, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Ladakh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Rajasthan and Sikkim have only 1 female judge respectively. Thus out of 567 working judges in the High Courts across the country, there are only 77 female judges.No judicial appointments have been made in the High Courts of Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gauhati, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Patna, Sikkim and Uttarakhand since 2020. In April 2021, the Supreme Court Women Lawyers Association (SCWLA) had filed an application before the Supreme Court seeking directions to consider meritorious women lawyers practicing in the Supreme Court and the High Courts for appointment as judges in the High Courts. The application had been filed to intervene in the case of M/s PLR Projects Pvt Ltd v. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd in which the Supreme Court was considering the issue of unfilled vacancies of High Court judge posts. The statistics mentioned in the application revealed how abysmally low the representation of women in higher judiciary is. Till date, only 8 women judges have been appointed in the Supreme Court. There has never been a woman Chief Justice of India. Out of 25 High Courts in the country, only 1 High Court has a woman Chief Justice- Chief Justice Hima Kohli of Telangana High Court. Only 73 out of 661 High Court judges are women i.e. roughly 11.04 percent judges are women. A Supreme Court Bench comprising headed by former Chief Justice of India SA Bobde had remarked earlier this year that High Courts across the country were in a 'state of crisis' due to such increased vacancies. Accordingly, the Court had directed the Centre to notify appointments within 3 to 4 weeks after the Collegium reiterates its recommendations. With regards to the representation of minority communities in the judiciary, the Minister further informed that no class/category wise data is maintained by the Central government. This is because appointments of Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts are made pursuant to Articles 124, 217 and 224 of the Constitution of India, which do not provide for any such reservations. "However, the Government has been requesting the Chief Justices of High Courts that while sending proposals for appointment of Judges, due consideration be given to suitable candidates belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Minorities and Women to ensure social diversity in appointment of Judges in High Courts", the Minister added.Judicial Vacancy (Subordinate Courts) StatusIn response to the query raised by MP Benny Behnan regarding the vacancy and shortage of judges in the lower Judiciary, the Law Ministry stated thus:"Department of Justice is writing from time to time to Registrars General of all High Courts to expedite the filling up of vacancies in subordinate judiciary mandated by Malik Mazhar case."It was further added that pursuant to Article 225...

Union Law Minister's Responses On Judicial Vacancies, Women Representation, AIBE, Case Arrears Etc

Sparsh Upadhyay & Aaratrika Bhaumik

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