The report, titled ‘State of the Judiciary,’ closely looks at issues of vacancy, lack of diversity in the judiciary, lack of infrastructure for both judges and litigants, and the sub-optimal working conditions of court staff, among others. https://thewire.in/law/india-judiciary-courts-pendency-causes-caste-women
As on October 2023, the report points out that there are over five crore pending cases across all higher and subordinate courts in India. To handle them, however, there are only 20,580 judges working in the Supreme Court, the high courts and district courts.
The data (as on October 1, 2023) reveals that as against the sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges in the high courts across the country, as many as 347 positions are vacant.
Similarly, in the district judiciary, out of the total sanctioned strength of 25,081 judges, as of April 2023, the working strength was only 19,781. As many as 5,300 district judges’ positions are vacant.
India’s highest court presently has only three female judges (9.3%) out of its working strength of 32 judges, as of October 1, 2023.
The situation is just as grim in the high courts. Out of 767 permanent and additional judges in the high courts across India, only 103 are female judges (i.e 13.42%).
The district judiciary, however, shows considerable improvement with the strength of 36.33% female judges.
26/12/2023