New Delhi, Nov 12 (PTI) The Supreme Court collegium willtake a call on appointing 40 new judges to nine courts, asenior functionary said even as 106 judges have been appointedto the constitutional courts this year.
The law ministry has forwarded recommendations from ninehigh courts to appoint 40 judges to the Supreme Courtcollegium.
The high courts from where the recommendations have beenreceived include Karnataka, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Madras andTripura, the functionary said.
According to law ministry data, as on September 1, whilethe approved strength of judges in the 24 high courts was1,079, there were 413 vacancies and these high courts werefunctioning with an effective working strength of 666 judges.
As per procedure, the three-member high court collegiumrecommends a name to the Supreme Court collegium. Therecommendation is initially sent to the Law Ministry, whichattaches an IB report about the candidate's record andforwards it to the SC collegium for a final call.
The collegium had recently said that the judiciary andnot the IB, is a better judge of who should be part of thejudiciary.
Commenting on the appointment of judges, law ministerRavi Shankar Prasad said 126 judges were appointed in 2016which is a record since 1989.
He said on an average 82 judges were appointed annually.
"As of now, 106 judges have been appointed in 2017. ByDecember 31, we will surpass the 126 figure," Prasad said onThursday at an event attended by Chief Justice of India DipakMisra. PTI NAB ZMNRCJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.