Alld HC CJ recuses himself from hearing PIL on judicial vacancies

Prayagraj: Allahabad high court Chief Justice Arun Bhansali on Thursday recused himself from hearing a PIL seeking a direction for the timely and expeditious filling of 81 judicial vacancies (over 50% of the sanctioned strength of 160 judges) in Allahabad HC.
The PIL filed by senior advocate Satish Trivedi will be now placed before another bench where the chief justice is not a member.
While stating that the high court is "facing gravest crisis in its history", the PIL also sought the laying down of mandatory guidelines to streamline the process of judicial appointments in the high court, including strict adherence to the timelines prescribed under the memorandum of procedure.
Highlighting the severe shortage of judges in the Allahabad high court, the PIL pointed out that with a population of 24 crore and over 11 lakh pending cases in UP, there is currently only one judge for every 30 lakh people, with each judge handling an average of 14,623 pending cases.
Further, it said that the high court is in a "state of functional paralysis" as it is operating at less than 50% of its sanctioned judicial strength, and this has led to an insurmountable backlog of over 11 lakh cases.
The petitioner further said that even if the court's strength reaches the sanctioned 160 judges, there will still be only one judge for every 15 lakh people, and each judge will have about 7,220 pending cases to address.
The PIL added that the vacancies, leading to enormous pendency, put burden and hardship both on litigants and judges.
In this backdrop, the PIL suggested that the high court should establish a mandatory accountability mechanism through judicial guidelines. These would require the names of at least 20 potential candidates for judicial elevation to be recommended six months before any vacancy arises.
The PIL suggested that this process should be expedited so that when a vacancy occurs or a judge retires, a successor is immediately ready, ensuring the court functions at its full strength of 160 judges without any gaps.During the court proceedings, another senior advocate of high court – SFA Naqvi appeared on behalf of the PIL petitioner when the matter was taken up on Thursday.