Only 13 judges for every ten lakh people in India

NEW DELHI: India has just 13 judges for every ten lakh people as against 35-40 in other developing nations and 50 in a developed country, a Parliamentary panel has said and urged the government to "make all out efforts" to fill up the existing vacant posts of judges.

The Committee on Empowerment of Women in its report on ' Victims of sexual abuse and trafficking and their rehabilitation' noted that India has 18,000 positions of judges at the subordinate Judiciary level but 3,000 are yet to be filled.

"There is about 13 judges for every one million population. This is against an average of 50 judges per one million population in developed countries and 35-40 in some other developing countries...In the High Courts, there are 895 permanent Judges, whereas the actual strength is less than 700," it said.

Department of Justice informed the panel that of the 18,000 positions of judges, about 15,000 are presiding the courts and there is a proposal to add another 15,000 positions in the next five years which will take the number to 30,000.

But the Committee was of the view that even that augmentation of resources will be inadequate.

It said, "Even after increasing the strength of judges, the judge-population ratio in the country would be far less than the ratio in other developed/developing countries."

The committee recommended that the government should make "all out efforts to fill up all the existing vacant posts of judges at the subordinate level as in the High Courts".

The panel also directed the government to apprise it of the concrete steps taken by it to bring the judge-population ratio at least to a level of 35-40 Judges per ten lakh population, if not 50 as existing in developed countries.