Speedy trial is one of the basic human rights as without speedy trial justice cannot be said to be done. It has been endorsed in almost all international charters and conventions. In 1979, Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar AIR 2017 SC 1362, the Apex Court, in this case, held that the “right to a speedy trial” is a fundamental right implicit in the right of life and personal liberty provided under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution.
Present status of vacancies of judges
Supreme Court: The lack of an adequate number of judges to handle the large number of cases pending in courts is often cited to be one of the main reasons for delays. To tackle this problem before Supreme Court, In 2019 parliament passed The Supreme Court (Number of Judges), Amendment Bill, 2019 which increased the sanctioned strength of judges in the apex court to 34(1 chief justice and 33 judges). According to the statement published by the department of justice as of 17.01.2022, there are 32 judges in the supreme court of India which means 2 seats are vacant.
High Court: In 25 high courts, 411 seats for judgers are vacant. All the high courts (except Tripura and Sikkim) have vacancies for judges. Vacancy in High Courts stood at 37% (406 posts vacant out of a sanctioned strength of 1,098). Since May 2021, the Supreme Court collegium has recommended more than 130 names for appointment as High Court judges. In three High Courts (Telangana, Patna, and Calcutta), at least half of the posts are vacant. The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice (2020) noted that 35-40% of High Court judges’ posts remain unfilled every year. The situation becomes worse when you find that approximately 5.46 million cases were pending in different high courts.
Eight judges to retire from the Supreme Court in 2022: 2022 will witness retirement of eight judges. In the beginning of the year, on 04-01-2022 former Hon’ble Mr Justice R.Subhash Reddy completed his term in the Supreme Court. Seven more sitting judges of the Supreme Court will retire in 2022. The present chief justice of India, Justice N.V Ramana is among them who will complete their term in the apex court. Other judges to follow up include Justice Uday Umesh Lalit, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justice L Nageswara Rao, Justice Indira Banerjee, Justice Vineet Saran, and Justice Hemant Gupta.
Brief descriptions about the judges who retire in 2022 are as follows:
Hon’ble Mr. (Former) Justice R.Subhash Reddy
- He was Elevated as Additional Judge of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh on 02.12.2002.
- He was sworn in as Judge of High Court of A.P. with effect from 24.06.2004.
- Continued as Judge of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad till 12th February 2016.
- Then Elevated as Chief Justice, High Court of Gujarat on 13th February 2016.
- After this, he was Elevated as Judge, Supreme Court of India on 2nd November 2018.
- He retired from his office on 04.01.2022.
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Vineet Saran
- He was elevated as permanent Judge on 14.02.2002.
- He Took oath as Judge of Karnataka High Court on 16.02.2015.
- He was appointed to the Supreme Court Judge on 07.08.2018.
- Date of retirement: 10.05.2022
Hon’ble Mr. Justice L. Nageswara Rao
- He was appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court of India on 13.05.2016.
- Date of retirement: 07.06.2022
Hon’ble Mr. Justice A.M. Khanwilkar
- He was appointed as Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court on 29th March 2000 and confirmed as permanent Judge on 8th April 2002.
- He was appointed as Chief Justice of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh on 4th April 2013. Thereafter, he was appointed as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on 24th November 2013.
- Then he was elevated as Judge of the Supreme Court of India and assumed charge on May 13, 2016.
- Date of retirement: 29.07.2022
Hon’ble Mr. Justice N.V. Ramana
- He enrolled as an Advocate on February 10, 1983.
- He has practiced in the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, Central and Andhra Pradesh Administrative Tribunals, and the Supreme Court of India in Civil, Criminal, Constitutional, Labour, Service, and Election matters.
- He has also functioned as Additional Advocate General of Andhra Pradesh. He was appointed as a Permanent Judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on June 27, 2000. He functioned as Acting Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh High Court from March 10, 2013, to May 20, 2013
- Elevated as the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court with effect from 02.09.2013. Elevated as a Judge, Supreme Court of India with effect from 17.02.2014.
- Currently he served as 48th chief justice of India.
- Date of retirement: 26.08.2022
Hon’ble Ms. Justice Indira Banerjee
- She was elevated as a permanent Judge of Calcutta High Court on 5-2-2002.
- She was appointed Judge of the Delhi High Court on 8th August 2016.
- She was sworn in as Chief Justice of Madras High Court on 5th April 2017.
- She was elevated as Judge of Supreme Court on 7th August 2018.
- Date of retirement: 23.09.2022
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hemant Gupta
- He took over as Judge of Patna High Court on 8.2.2016 and was appointed as Acting Chief Justice of that High Court on 29.10.2016. He was appointed as Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court on 18.3.2017.
- Elevated to Supreme Court of India on 2.11.2018.
- Date of retirement: 16.10.2022
Hon’ble Mr. Justice Uday Umesh Lalit
- He was appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of India on August 13, 2014.
- Date of retirement: 08.11.2022
Strength of courts and population ratio
Last year as reported in 2021, the law minister Kiren Rijiju informed Rajya Sabha that the judge-population ratio in India stood at 21.03 judges per million people in 2020. According to him, the judge-population ratio in 2018 stood at 19.78 judges per million people and 20.39 in 2019.
The sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court increased from 31 in 2014 to 34 in the year 2020. The sanctioned strength of judges of high courts increased from 906 judges in June 2014 to 1,079 judges in December 2020. The sanctioned strength of judges of district and subordinate courts increased from 19,518 in the year 2014 to 24,225 in 2020.
To calculate the judge-population ratio for per million population in a particular year, the Department of Justice in the Ministry of Law, uses the population count as per the 2011 census and available information regarding sanctioned strength of judges in Supreme Court, high courts, district, and subordinate courts, in the particular year.
It is right that the judge population ratio increased last year which is a good sign but this indicates that the government increases the sanctioned strength of the court but most of the high court in India has vacancies for judges. From total strength of 1098 judges, 411 are vacant. It means that high courts are working on 62% capacity.
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