Chief Justice T. S. Thakur has been relentlessly pursuing the issue of appointment of Judges with the Government. <\/p>\n
The statistics are alarming<\/a>. As of March 2016, there are 48,418 civil cases pending in the Supreme Court and 31,16,492 civil cases pending in the High Court. The cases pending in the lower Courts have reached an incalculable level. In addition to the civil cases, there are innumerable criminal cases pending where under-trials are languishing in custody. On an average, it takes several decades for a matter to reach finality. <\/p>\n This sorry state of affairs is because the Government is dragging its feet in giving its approval to the names suggested by the Collegium to be appointed as Judges. <\/p>\n The situation has now reached such absurd limits that the Court rooms are having to be locked for want of judges to hear cases. <\/p>\n The ET reported<\/a> that in the Karnataka High Court, several court rooms are shut because out of a sanctioned strength of 62 judges, only 26 judges have been appointed. <\/p>\n This is insult to injury. The sanctioned strength is itself very low if one goes by the ideal judge to population ratio. Matters are made worse by the fact that even the vacancies in sanctioned strength are not filled up. As of date, there are 478 vacancies for judges in the High Courts. <\/p>\n Chief Justice T. S. Thakur has not spared a single occasion to draw the attention of the Government to the woes of the judiciary and the agony of the public in having to wait endlessly for justice. <\/p>\n At the recently held conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices, Chief Justice Thakur became emotional and broke down<\/a> at the abject apathy of the Government in the matter of appointment of judges. <\/p>\nCourt rooms locked for want of judges<\/h3>\n
Chief Justice T. S. Thakur in tears … <\/h3>\n