New Delhi, March 29: Anguished by the fact there are not enough judges in the Supreme Court, Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi on Friday said a large number of cases were being accumulated in the top Court. Gogoi took a dig at the lawyers for mentioning matters despite shortage of judges in the Court. According to a tweet by CJI Gogoi, the Court would not be hearing any mentioning of matters unless "it is a case of life and death". Ranjan Gogoi Says No Urgent Hearing Unless Someone is to be Hanged or Evicted. 

"Sorry, we won't hear any mentioning matters," CJI Ranjan Gogoi said. "500 cases are listed. Where are the judges? And you keep on mentioning," Gogoi told lawyers. In 2018, former CJI Dipak Misra had raised concerns on the rising backlog which had touched 3.3 crore cases. According to Law Ministry data as per September 2018, India has 19 judges per 10 lakh people on an average.  Justice Ranjan Gogoi Sworn-In as New Chief Justice of India; Here’s All You Need to Know About the New CJI.

Here's the tweet:

The data reveals that the judiciary faces a combined shortage of over 6,000 judges, including over 5,000 in the lower courts itself. According to the data, part of a document prepared in March this year for discussion in Parliament, the judge-population ratio is 19.49 per million (10 lakh) people. The document states that while the subordinate courts have a shortage of 5748 judicial officers, the 24 high courts face 406 vacancies.

According to reports, the working strength of the lower judiciary is 16,726 while the approved strength is much higher at 22,474. Meanwhile, as far as the high courts are concerned, the approved strength is 1079, the actual strength is 673.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 29, 2019 01:19 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).