States send 100 names for High Court benches as Law Ministry debates rule to be followed

NEW DELHI: States have recommended to the law ministry more than 100 candidates for appointment to high court benches, adding to the nearly 80 lawyers and lower court judges that the government is currently vetting for the posts. There are about 465 vacancies in the HCs against a sanctioned strength of 1,056 judges and filling these is critical to the judiciary’s plan to speed up the dispensation of justice, which can be notoriously slow.

The new candidates have been forwarded by about 10 states after the respective HC collegiums—consisting of the chief justice and two senior most judges—recommended their names. However, law ministry officials are debating whether to process these fresh names according to the old memorandum of procedure (MoP) or the new one that’s awaiting the government’s final approval. The MoP lays out guidelines for the selection of judges to the higher judiciary.

As first reported by ET, the PMO has cleared the names of more than 20 candidates for appointment to the HC and sent them to the President.



The appointment of nearly 115 lawyers and lower court judges to HC benches had been held up for over a year following the constitution of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) by the government to replace the collegium syst em. Following a legal battle, the NJAC was struck down last October.

As per available information, after the SC didn’t approve of 35 of the 115 names, the law ministry processed the remaining 80 or so for final notification. These are awaiting clearance at different levels of the government.