After Bombay HC nudge, govt says 348 new district, civil judges’ posts created
The state government, while responding to the PIL by one Vaijnath Pandurang Vaze, seeking increased strength of judges and adequate court infrastructure, said that the state cabinet will take the decision at the earliest and the same will be placed before the HC on January 8.
3 min read
Kakade added that the government has granted approval for creation of remaining 2,863 posts along with approval for creation of posts of the supporting staff and the same will be placed before the state cabinet, whose decision will be likely placed before the HC on January 8.The Maharashtra government’s law and judiciary department recently told the Bombay High Court that 348 new posts of judicial officers across the state have been created taking the sanctioned strength from 2,012 to 2,360, while the National Court Management Systems Committee (NCMSC) had recommended creation of 3,211 more posts of judges across Maharashtra to deal with the increased caseload.
The state also informed that a proposal for creating the remaining 2,863 posts will be placed before the cabinet. The state government, while responding to the PIL by one Vaijnath Pandurang Vaze, seeking increased strength of judges and adequate court infrastructure, said that the state cabinet will take the decision at the earliest and the same will be placed before the HC on January 8.
As per the annual report on Indian Judiciary for the year 2022-23 issued by the Supreme Court, of sanctioned strength of judicial officers under the jurisdiction of Bombay HC of 2,442, as on June 30, this year, 2,400 were filled and 42 were vacant. Moreover, as per National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), 51.80 lakh cases are pending in Maharashtra including 16.35 civil and 35.44 criminal cases.
A division bench of Justices Revati Mohite-Dere and Gauri V Godse had initially on December 1 observed that it “could not see any real efforts having been made by the government” pursuant to the September 2018 judgment of the HC. The HC bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka (now Supreme Court judge) in 2018 had directed the government to take certain expeditius steps for appointment of judges at the district level.
Therefore, the HC on December 1 asked Nitin Karir, Additional Chief Secretary of state Finance department, along with AS Kaloti, Principal Secretary of the Law and Judiciary department. The bench then asked the Law and Judiciary department to file a report on the status of steps taken by the state government to address concerns raised in PIL. However, as the report was not satisfactory, the bench on December 15 returned the same and asked the department to file another report, which it pursued on December 19. On that day, Government Pleader P P Kakade submitted a report of the Deputy Legal Advisor-cum-Deputy Secretary, Law and Judiciary department, and stated that 348 new posts were created after the NCMSC recommended creation of 3,211 posts.
Kakade added that the government has granted approval for creation of remaining 2,863 posts along with approval for creation of posts of the supporting staff and the same will be placed before the state cabinet, whose decision will be likely placed before the HC on January 8.
You May Like
