Ministry of Law and Justice clears names of 37 new judges for high courts

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Law and Justice on Monday issued the notification of the appointment of 11 new high court judges recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium. This is after the Collegium cleared the appointment of 26 high court judges in Allahabad, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Guwahati on Friday. 

According to an official statement of the Ministry of Law and Justice, 138 appointments in various high courts of the country have been made so far this year. In 2021, 120 high court judges were appointed, in addition to nine Supreme Court judges. In  2016, 126 high court judges were appointed.

Among 38 judges, 11 have been made in the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. Those appointed as High Court judges in Punjab and Haryana are justices Nidhi Gupta, Sanjay Vashisth, Tribhuvan Dahiya, Namit Kumar, Harkesh Manuja, Aman Chaudhary, Naresh Singh, Harsh Bunger, Jagmohan Bansal, Deepak Manchanda and Alok Jain.

The official communication said that the appointment process in the higher judiciary has been put on fast track. The latest appointments have been made at a time when at least 59,55,907 cases are pending before the High Courts of various states, according to the government’s recent reply announced in the Upper House of Parliament. 

Besides, the available government record says that appointments of 769 new judges and 619 additional judges have been made in various High Courts between 2014 and 2022. The government has said to have increased the sanctioned strength of judges in the High Courts from 906 in 2014 to 1,108.