HC adjourns hearing on PIL seeking directions to fill vacant posts of judges

Prayagraj (UP), May 30 (PTI) The Allahabad High court on Friday adjourned till July 21 a public interest litigation (PIL) matter seeking directions for the timely and expeditious filling of all the vacant judges' posts in the court.

A bench of Justices Vivek Kumar Birla and Jitendra Kumar Sinha was hearing the petition filed by senior advocate Satish Trivedi.

Senior advocate S F A Naqvi appeared in the court on behalf of the petitioner when the matter was taken up on Friday.

Claiming that the high court is "facing the gravest crisis in its history", the PIL has also sought binding guidelines that should be mandatorily adhered to for streamlining the process of judicial appointments in the court, including strict adherence to the timelines prescribed under the memorandum of procedure.

Highlighting the severe shortage of judges in the court, the PIL pointed out that with a population of 24 crore and more than 11 lakh pending cases in Uttar Pradesh, there is currently only one judge for every 30 lakh people, with each judge handling an average of 14,623 pending cases.

The PIL has said the high court is in a "state of functional paralysis" as it is operating at less than 50 per cent of its sanctioned judicial strength and this has led to an insurmountable backlog of more than 11 lakh cases. PTI COR RAJ RC