HYDERABAD: With Chief Justice of India NV Ramana giving the nod for fulfilling the State’s long pending demand, the sanctioned Bench strength of Telangana High Court will go up from 24 to 42. The massive 75 per cent increase will now help in reducing the pendency of cases. The increase in sanctioned Bench strength of Telangana High Court, which is one of the biggest in a long time, will come into effect from June 8, 2021, the date on which Justice Ramana gave his approval. Out of 42 judges, 32 will be permanent judges and 10 will be additional judges while elevations from Bar to be 28 and from the Judicial Services to be 14.
The proposal to increase sanctioned Bench strength, in view of the proportionately higher pendency in the State High Court, has been pending for over two years. The proposal was sent to Union Minister of Law and Justice by the then Chief Justice of Telangana High Court in February, 2019. The same was endorsed by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao.
The Ministry examined it in detail but kept it in abeyance. The proposal was revived and acted upon at the behest of CJI NV Ramana. On a reference received from the PMO based on a letter from the Chief Minister to Prime Minister, the matter was revisited by the Ministry of Law and Justice.
After re-examination, the Ministry in November, 2019 conveyed to the then CJ of Telangana High Court that the preference be given to fillingup vacancies first but the matter remained dormant till Justice Ramana assumed charge as CJI. The CJI, in his letter to the Union Law Ministry, underscored the need for clearance for an increase in sanctioned Bench strength from 24 to 42. The pendency of cases has gone up alarmingly to 2.37 lakh cases, including 2.03 lakh civil and 34,000 criminal cases.
AIMED AT REDUCING CASE PENDENCY
Aiming to reduce case pendency across the country, especially in high courts, CJI N V Ramana is now pushing to increase their sanctioned strength of judges. In a recent meeting with chief justices of all high courts, the CJI had shared his vision of creating a National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation