Sanctioned Strength of Supreme Court and High Court Judges, Vacancies and number of pending cases as on 29.01.2024

Sanctioned strength, Working Strength and Vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court & the High Courts and number of pending cases as on 29.01.2024: Lok Sabha QA

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 5

TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 02.02.2024

Sanctioned Strength of Supreme Court and High Court Judges

5. SHRI MAHESH SAHOO:

Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

(a) the total sanctioned strength of judges in Supreme Court and High Courts across the country along with the number of judges at present;

(b) the number of pending cases in Supreme Court and High Courts, High Court-wise details thereof; and

(c) whether the Government is considering increasing the strength of Supreme Court and High Court judges to get over with the pending cases, if so, the details thereof ?

ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

(SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

(a) to (c): As on 29.01.2024, against the sanctioned strength of 34 Judges, the Supreme Court is functioning at full strength and there is no vacancy. As regards the High Courts, against the sanctioned strength of 1114 Judges, 783 Judges are working and 331 post of Judges are vacant in the various High Courts. The High Court-wise detail of sanctioned strength, working strength and vacancy as on 29.01.2024 is at Annexure-I.

The pendency of cases in courts is not only due to shortage of judges in High Courts but also due to various other factors like (i) increase in number of state and central legislations, (ii) accumulation of first appeals, (iii) continuation of ordinary civil jurisdiction in some of the High Courts, (iv) appeals against orders of quasi-judicial forums going to High Courts, (v) number of revisions/appeals, (vi) frequent adjournments, (vii) indiscriminate use of writ jurisdiction, (viii) lack of adequate arrangement to monitor, tracking and bunching of cases for hearing, (ix) assigning work of administrative nature to the Judges, etc.

The strength of the Supreme Court of India was increased from 31 to 34 Judges (including Chief Justice of India) on 9th August, 2019. Whereas the strength of High Court has increased from 906 in 2014 to 1114Judges.Presently, no complete proposal regarding increase in Judge strength of High Courts is under consideration of the Government.

A statement regarding number of pending cases in Supreme Court and High Courts; High Court-wise is placed at Annexure-II.

***

ANNEXURE-I

Statement showing Sanctioned strength, Working Strength and Vacancies of Judges in the Supreme Court of India and the High Courts (as on 29.01.2024)

		Sanctioned strength			Working strength			Vacancies
A.	Supreme Court	34			34			0
B.	High Court	Pmt.	Addl	Total	Pmt.	Addl	Total	Pmt.	Addl	Total
1	Allahabad	119	41	160	76	14	90	43	27	70
2	Andhra Pradesh	28	9	37	22	8	30	6	1	7
3	Bombay	71	23	94	40	29	69	31	-6	25
4	Calcutta	54	18	72	37	14	51	17	4	21
5	Chhattisgarh	17	5	22	10	6	16	7	-1	6
6	Delhi	46	14	60	37	5	42	9	9	18
7	Gauhati	22	8	30	16	7	23	6	1	7
8	Gujarat	39	13	52	31	0	31	8	13	21
9	Himachal Pradesh	13	4	17	12	0	12	1	4	5
10	J & K and Ladakh	13	4	17	11	4	15	2	0	2
11	Jharkhand	20	5	25	17	1	18	3	4	7
12	Karnataka	47	15	62	39	12	51	8	3	11
13	Kerala	35	12	47	32	4	36	3	8	11
14	Madhya Pradesh	39	14	53	39	1	40	0	13	13
15	Madras	56	19	75	54	13	67	2	6	8
16	Manipur	4	1	5	4	0	4	0	1	1
17	Meghalaya	3	1	4	2	1	3	1	0	1
18	Orissa	24	9	33	20	0	20	4	9	13
19	Patna	40	13	53	35	0	35	5	13	18
20	Punjab & Haryana	64	21	85	41	15	56	23	6	29
21	Rajasthan	38	12	50	34	0	34	4	12	16
22	Sikkim	3	0	3	3	0	3	0	0	0
23	Telangana	32	10	42	21	5	26	11	5	16
24	Tripura	4	1	5	4	1	5	0	0	0
25	Uttarakhand	9	2	11	6	0	6	3	2	5
	Total	840	274	1114	643	140	783	197	134	331

Statement showing pendency of cases in Supreme Court and the High Courts

The number of cases pending in Supreme Court, as on 23.01.2024, are 80,221 cases. The detailed Statement of High-Court-wise pendency of cases are as per Annexure.

High-Court wise Pendency of Cases (as on 23.01.2024)
Sr No.	High Court	No. of Pending Cases
1	Allahabad High Court	1074789
2	Bombay High Court	722657
3	High Court Of Rajasthan	669554
4	Madras High Court	541829
5	High Court of Madhya Pradesh	447440
6	High Court of Punjab and Haryana	441573
7	High Court of Karnataka	288387
8	High Court of Kerala	255399
9	High Court of Andhra Pradesh	248979
10	High Court for State of Telangana	248088
11	Patna High Court	197798
12	Calcutta High Court	195208
13	High Court of Gujarat	170002
14	Orissa High Court	145882
15	High Court of Delhi	123658
16	High Court of Himachal Pradesh	100276
17	High Court Of Chhattisgarh	90354
18	High Court of Jharkhand	84358
19	Gauhati High Court	62579
20	High Court of Uttarakhand	50762
21	High Court of Jammu and Kashmir	44622
22	High Court of Manipur	4687
23	High Court of Tripura	1271
24	High Court of Meghalaya	1137
25	High Court of Sikkim	182
	Total	6211471