MADURAI: The Madras High Court’s Madurai Bench transferred a case praying to appoint judges up to its full allocated strength to a full bench of the principal seat in Chennai comprising five judges to decide the case.
A division bench comprising Justices M Jaichandren and R Mahadevan referred the case to a full bench while hearing a public interest litigation petition filed by an advocate.
The petitioner’s counsel Peter Ramesh Kumar submitted that in 2013 the High Court’s Madurai Bench had admitted over 22,000 litigations. Likewise in the principal seat, over 36,000 cases were filed. But only 12 judges were available at the Madurai Bench to hear these cases. Since one-third cases are filed in the Madurai Bench, the allocation of judges should be of the same ratio in the Madurai Bench.
He also contended that if one-third of the sanctioned strength of judges is allotted to Madurai Bench,the backlog can be cleared. Speedy justice enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution cannot be achieved without appointing judges.
Only 44 judges were available in the High Court as opposed to its sanctioned strength of 60.Hence he sought a direction to the High Court to take steps to get more judges appointed through the collegiums.