New Delhi, November 1:  The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up Delhi High Court for the delay in completing the recruitment process of 200 judges in the lower courts. The Apex Court warned the Delhi High Court if it cannot fill up the vacancies, it will make the recruitment of judges a centralised process.  “If you can’t fill up the vacancies, we will take over that task from you and we will make it a centralised process", the Supreme Court said.

In October, the top court had sought details as to when the recruitment process/processes for filling 4,180 posts for "Higher Judicial Service" and "Lower Judicial Service" was initiated and was expected to be complete.  Under the schedule, the process for recruitment has to commence on March 31 and be completed by October 31 of the calendar year. Justice Rajendra Menon Takes Charge as Chief Justice of Delhi High Court. 

On October 23, a bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul looked into the issue of the filling up of the vacancies in lower courts. The bench sought information from high courts and the state governments terming that the existence of these vacancies is "wholly unacceptable". The top Court had sought the information by October 31 and posted the matter for hearing on November 1.

The Apex Court noted there is a total number of 22,036 posts in the subordinate judiciary and out of these, 5,133 posts were lying vacant. "22,036 constitute the total workforce of the District and Subordinate Judiciary in the country," the bench had said.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 01, 2018 12:09 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).