There are three vacancies for judges in the Supreme Court and 284 in various high courts, the Rajya Sabha was informed Monday. Minister of Law and Justice Salman Khurshid said in a written reply ‘…the main reason for the large number of vacant posts is that the government has not received sufficient proposals to fill up these vacant posts’.
‘The government is periodically reminding the chief justices of the high courts to initiate proposals in time for filling up the existing vacancies…it has also requested the chief justices to launch a campaign from July-December for filling up vacancies of judges,’ he added.
The total number of vacancies in all the high courts of India is 284 with the Allahabad High Court topping the list with 98, the documents filed by the minister indicated.
Answering a question on a demand for setting up additional benches of the Orissa High Court, Khurshid said: ‘Setting up of benches of high court away from their principal seats is considered by the central government on receipt of a complete proposal from the state government…the central government has not received any such proposal…’.
