CM likely to seek more judges for High Court

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, Aug. 14: The Chief Minister, Dr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, is likely to press for appointment of judges to the Andhra Pradesh High Court to overcome the acute shortage at a joint conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices of High Courts to be held in New Delhi on August 16.
Dr Reddy has decided to stress on the issue as there was an abnormal delay in filling up 18 vacancies in the AP High Court, according to the sources close to the Chief Minister’s Office. He will press for filling up all the vacancies at once.

While the sanctioned strength of judges is 49, the present strength is 31. The AP High Court Bar has been pressurising the government to fill up the vacancies.

As on March 31, the total number of cases pending in the AP High Court was 1,73,454.
Sources in the judiciary told this newspaper that the actual strength of judges is 39 and the Centre had sanctioned 10 additional posts. As per norms, the judiciary can take up the process of filling regular vacancies of eight judges first and 10 vacancies would be filled at a later stage.

Out of eight regular vacancies, two or three posts will be filled up from the judicial service and the remaining will be filled up with members of the High Court Bar, sources said.