Telangana: High Court Judges Posts Are Increased From 24 To 42

The Union Ministry of Law and Justice has finally taken a key decision to increase the number of High Court judges in Telangana. The state government has repeatedly written letters asking for additional judges after the formation of Telangana state. Despite Chief Justice NV Ramana's suggestion and the state government's insistence, the Supreme Court Chief Justice and the Union Ministry of Law and Justice made a critical decision to expand the number of judges from 24 to 42.

The state government, the High Court, and the Supreme Court have all filed appeals to the Central Judiciary. Following his appointment as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, NV Ramana evaluated the suggestions of many outstanding High Court issues. These were brought to the attention of the Prime Minister along with the Central Judiciary. In this context, he once again wrote a letter to the Union Law and Justice Minister. Special mention of the conditions in Telangana was made with the request of the Telangana State Government.

The state high court has all the facilities, where a total of 42 judges can be accommodated with the necessary infrastructure and no extra cost. In response to the CJI letter, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice has initiated the process of promotion of judges. It allowed increasing the existing number from 24 to 42. This was approved by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on Monday. According to officials, the rise will take effect on Monday. However, the Central Judiciary has yet to formally issue orders on this.

Meanwhile, there are about 2.5 lakh pending cases in Telangana, of which 2.10 lakh are civil and another 40,000 are criminal. The new posts were sanctioned due to the increasing burden on the existing judges to hear these cases and the possibility of accumulation of pending cases, as well as with the availability of infrastructure to accommodate more judges.

Compared to the number of chief justices in different states, Telangana ranks 13th especially when compared to Andhra Pradesh, which is larger in population than Telangana but has 37 posts. But with the latest increase, Telangana got 5 additional posts. The Allahabad High Court has 160 judges, Mumbai High Court 94, Punjab and Haryana 85, Chennai High Court 75, Kolkata 72, Karnataka 62, Delhi 60, Madhya Pradesh 53, Bihar 53, Gujarat 52 and Kerala High Court 47.