The Punjab and Haryana High Court has recommended promoting 15 District and Sessions Judges to the High Court after more than two years.
This comes in the face of a severe shortage of judges—about 40 percent—and a backlog of over 4.32 lakh cases. The High Court Collegium, which met last week, proposed eight judges from Punjab and seven from Haryana for the elevation.
This decision is made in response to the high court’s overwhelming case backlog. According to the National Judicial Data Grid, 85 percent of these cases have been pending for over a year, with some unresolved for nearly four decades.
Of the 4,32,227 pending cases, 2,68,279 are civil cases, and 1,63,948 are criminal cases, impacting basic rights like life and liberty.
The last promotion of District and Sessions Judges to the high court was in November 2022. Despite efforts to address long-pending cases, the backlog has not improved significantly. There are still 48,386 second appeals pending, including some that have been waiting for judgment since 1986.
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Currently, the high court operates with only 51 judges, well below its sanctioned strength of 85. With three more judges retiring this year, the shortage continues to grow. The process of appointing judges is slow and involves multiple clearances from state governments, governors, the Supreme Court Collegium, and the Union Law Ministry, further delaying the system.
Data also shows that 15 per cent of the pending cases have been unresolved for less than a year, 30 percent for five to ten years, and alarmingly, 29 percent have been pending for more than ten years.
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