In the middle of a dispute with the Supreme Court over the collegium system for appointing judges, the government informed Parliament that the most judges have ever been nominated to various high courts.
According to a written reply given to the Rajya Sabha yesterday by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, the number of High Court judges appointed reached 165, which was "the highest in a calendar year."
According to the government, there are 331 open positions, or one-third of the 1,108 judges that are authorised to serve.
The Law Minister stated that "Against the vacancy of 331, 147 proposals received from High Courts are at various stages of processing between the government and the Supreme Court collegium."
The National Judicial Appointments Commission Act of 2014 was "declared unlawful and void" by the Supreme Court in 2015, the minister added in his letter. According to his writing, the collegium system still governs all recent nominations to the higher judicial branch.
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