President approves appointment of 25 judges for Allahabad, Calcutta High Courts

President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday approved appointments of 25 judges in two High Courts. The decision is aimed at reducing the large number of vacancy in higher judiciary.

In separate notifications from the Law Ministry, the appointment of 19 additional judges in the Allahabad High Court and six in Calcutta High Court were recommended.

The additional judges are normally given a term of two years and based on their performance, they are elevated to permanent judge position.

These are the first set of fresh appointments to the high court after Justice Dipak Misra took over as Chief Justice of India on August 28.

As on September 1, the Allahabad High Court, with an approved strength of 160 judges is functioning with 91-- a shortage of 69.

The Calcutta High Court has an approved strength of 72 judges, but is working with 31-- a shortage of 41.

Besides the fresh appointments made today, over 61 recommendations by 13 high courts on appointments of new judges and elevation of additional judges are awaiting a final nod by the Supreme Court collegium.

These recommendations include 36 names sent by eight high courts for appointment as judges and 25 names sent by five high courts for elevation of additional judges to permanent judges.

The recommendations were sent to the SC collegium when Justice J S Khehar was the Chief Justice of India. He demitted office on August 27 and Dipak Misra took over as the new CJI the next day.

With PTI inputs