17 judges to be appointed to Bombay, J&K high courts soon

New Delhi: A total of 17 judges are set to be appointed to the Bombay and the Jammu and Kashmir high courts in the coming days.

The files relating to their appointments have reached Rashtrapati Bhawan after being cleared by the Prime Minister’s Office, sources in the government said on Monday. While 14 judges are to be appointed to the Bombay high court, three will be appointed to the Jammu and Kashmir high court. At present, while the Bombay high court has 33 vacancies, the Jammu and Kashmir high court faces a shortage of eight judges.

While the approved strength of the 24 high courts is 1,079 judges, they are functioning with a truncated strength of 629—a shortage of 450 judges. The government is unlikely to increase the approved strength of high court judges but focus on filling vacancies.

Sources in the law ministry said the present strength of 1,079 is unlikely to be raised this year as the main focus would be to fill up vacancies in the 24 high courts. Over three crore cases are pending in courts across India.