The Supreme Court on Thursday rebuked the high courts of Delhi, Allahabad and Calcutta for their failure to appoint judges in trial courts, which has contributed to a worrying increase in the number of vacancies in the subordinate judiciary.

A bench led by chief justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi interacted with the registrars general of the three HCs and representatives of the chief secretaries of the respective state governments and told them unequivocally that the top court would ensure that all the posts are filled up.

SC has on its own registered a petition to monitor filling up of over 5,000 posts that are lying vacant in trial courts. An insufficient number of judges is one of the reasons for the high backlog of cases at the lowest rung of the judiciary where over 27 million cases are still awaiting a final decision. “We want judges. We need courtrooms, support staff, infrastructure. We need our judges to be able to operate. We shall make the state governments, high courts and Public Service Commissions accountable,” the CJI asserted.

The bench had a brief exchange with each registrar general and the government officials. The court was told by senior advocate Shyam Diwan, assisting the court as amicus curiae (friend of the court), that the process of filling 125 of the 394 vacant posts in the higher judicial services in UP is underway and is expected to be completed by March 2019.

But the bench was unimpressed and said that as per an earlier ruling of the top court, the process should end by December this year and the hiring should take place by March 2019.

The registrar general of the HC was reprimanded for not filling the posts through regular promotions, without the need for a written examination and an interview. It was also critical of the lack of infrastructure for the judiciary .

First Published: Nov 15, 2018 23:58 IST