Judicial Vacancies : Supreme Court Directs HC Registrar Generals & Law Secretaries Of All States To Give Comprehensive Position To Amicus

The Supreme Court on Tuesday considered the Malik Mazhar Sultan vs UP Public Service Commission case, in which it has been passing various orders from time to time regarding the filling up of judicial vacancies in trial courts.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala assigned States and High Courts to the different amici curiae in the case for their examination and decided to consider the matter state-wise on specified dates.

The bench will consider two broad issues -(1) filling up of vacancies in district Judiciaries; (2). Infrastructure including disbursement of funds by HCs.

Senior Advocate Vijay Hansaria filed a status report on HCs of Orissa, MP, Patna, Punjab & Haryana. The Court decided to consider the situation of these States and HCs on February 2. 

On 9 Feb 2023, Senior Advocate Vishwanathan, will address the court with reference to HCs of Gujarat, J&K, Kerala, Karnataka, Jharkhand.

Senior Advocate Shyam Divan has been asked to address the position with respect to the High Courts of the States of  UP, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Delhi and North Eastern states on 17th of February. 

Advocate Gaurav Agrawal is to deal with High Courts of Rajasthan, Sikkim, and Telangana on February 18. Registrar Generals of HCs and Law secretaries of these states shall be present during the course of proceedings through live streaming.

The Court further directed that within one week, the Law Secretaries and Registrars shall interact amongst themselves so that comprehensive position is given to amicus.

The bench also asked Additional Solicitor General Vikramjeet Banerjee to take instructions from the Union Government. A senior member of the Ministry of Law and Justice shall be present to assist the ASG.

One counsel suggested that an online portal can be developed to update the status of vacancies in all states. Agreeing with the suggestion, CJI said, "I'll speak to the secretary general to have an online portal. We can even do it on committee". 

CJI requested amicus curiae K Parameshwar to prepare a concept note for the setting up of a web portal on which all info can be updated by HCs and Law secretaries of states both on positions of judicial appointments and infrastructure including manpower on real time basis.

Case : MALIK MAZHAR SULTAN  Versus U.P. PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION THROUGH ITS SECRETARY AND ORS|C.A. No. 1867/2006