The Constitution of the Bombay High Court’s Tax Bench w.e.f 16.08.2016 has been announced

In an emotional tone and with tears welling in his eyes, the learned Chief Justice asked “If you have 170 names sent to you (for appointment of HC judges) for two months, I don’t understand why they are held up, where are those proposals stuck, we should know.” “The vacancies in the high courts have since increased to 470” he added. Chief Justice Thakur also countered the contention of the Law Minister that it takes time to get reports. “Why should the Intelligence Bureau take months to send its report (on judges’ appointment)? Why can’t the Prime Minister’s Office ask the IB to send its report within 15 days? Why should the IB sit over these reports?” he demanded to know.

The Ministry of Law and Justice has released data of the latest pendency of cases in the Supreme Court and the High Courts. The data shows that nearly 48,418 civil cases are pending in the Supreme Court of which 1,132 cases are pending for more than 10 years. In the High Courts, 31,16,492 civil cases are pending of which more than 5,89,631 cases are pending for more than 10 years. A large number of criminal cases are also pending in all Courts. The number of criminal cases pending in the High Courts for more than 10 years is 187,999. It is stated that the Chief Justices’ Conference has resolved that each High Court shall establish an Arrears Committee to clear the backlog of cases pending for more than five years

The Ministry of Law & Justice has released data which shows that there are 6 vacancies in the Supreme Court and 464 vacancies in the High Courts. The vacancies of Judicial Officers in District and Subordinate Courts is about 4998. It is stated that in All India Judges’ Association Case, the Supreme Court had directed, on a comparative assessment of the position in other countries, that there should be 50 judges for a million population in the country. However, presently, the Judge (based on sanctioned strength) : population ratio in the country works out to be 17.72 Judges/Judicial Officers per million population. The steps being taken by the Government to fill the vacancies is also briefly outlined

Change In Constitution Of Bombay High Court’s Tax Bench w.e.f. 07.03.2016

Hon’ble Shri Justice Dhirendra Hiralal Waghela was sworn in to the office of Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court on 15th February 2016. The learned judge was earlier the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court and before that he was the Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court. According to biographical information contained in the website of the Orissa High Court, Chief Justice Wahgela was a “precocious child”. His teachers encouraged him twice to jump two standards in one academic year and that is how he cleared his eleventh standard matriculation at the age of 14 years. The learned Judge completed his LLB even before he completed the age of 21 years with the result that he had to wait a few months to be enrolled with the Bar

Change In Constitution Of Bombay High Court’s Tax Bench w.e.f. 04.01.2016