Telangana faces severe shortage of judges

Hyderabad: Telangana is facing shortage of judges in the State High Court as well as district courts resulting in pendency of cases. While around 28 posts are vacant in the High Court, around 96 posts are lying vacant in other courts across the State.

According to an answer tabled by Union Minister Kiren Rijiju on vacancies in various courts across the country in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, Telangana High Court has a sanctioned strength of 42 judges, of which the working strength is just 14 judges including Chief Justice Hima Kohli. Other courts in the State are facing a shortage of 96 judges against the sanctioned strength of 474 as on July 22 this year. Interestingly, the sanctioned strength was reduced from 493 in 2018 to 474 in 2021 even as the vacant posts increased from 48 in 2018 to 96 in 2021.

To fast track criminal cases involving elected MPs/MLAs, ten special courts are functional in nine States and Union Territories including one such court in Telangana State. Around 55 Grama Nyayalayas have been notified in Telangana, but none of them have been made functional so far, the Minister said.

Meanwhile, Telangana has six Permanent Lok Adalats which have settled 5,091 cases in 2018, 2,128 cases in 2019, 1,591 cases in 2020 and 525 cases upto May this year. Lok Adalats are serving as an important Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanism available to common people, where pending cases or disputes as well as in pre-litigation stage, are settled amicably.

During the lockdown, the courts took up digital hearing and disposed off 1,61,720 in the State against 97,21,491 cases disposed by the courts across the country.