30% judges’ posts vacant in Haryana districts courts: Union min

The MP, in his question, asked about the strength of judges at district courts in Haryana and at Punjab and Haryana high court.

Union minister of state for law and justice (independent charge) Arjun Ram Meghwal on Friday said that 30% of judicial officers’ posts are vacant in Haryana.

He was replying to an unstarred question put-up by Congress MP from Ambala seat Varun Chaudhry during the ongoing budget session. (HT Photo)

He was replying to an unstarred question put-up by Congress MP from Ambala seat Varun Chaudhry during the ongoing budget session.

The MP, in his question, asked about the strength of judges at district courts in Haryana and at Punjab and Haryana high court.

In the reply by the minister, it was revealed that there are 30% of posts of judicial officers vacant at district-level in the whole state, as per the management information system (MIS) portal of the Department of Justice.

It was submitted that 551 judicial officers in the district and subordinate courts of Haryana are working against the sanctioned strength of 781 as on February 04, 2025.

The minister also stated that against the sanctioned strength of 85, 51 judges are working at the Punjab and Haryana high court. The high court deals with the cases from Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh.

The Ambala MP also sought a list of the number of courts which are to be provided with dedicated video conferencing facilities in the district courts across the country.

In the reply the minister said that as part of the National e-Governance Plan, the e-Courts Mission Mode Project is under implementation for information and communication technology (ICT) development of the Indian judiciary based on the “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in the Indian Judiciary”.

“During Phase I of the project, video conferencing (VC) facility has been operationalised between 488 court complexes and 342 corresponding jails. In e-Courts Phase II of the project, one video conference equipment each has been provided to all court complexes including taluk level courts and funds have been sanctioned for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 25,06 VC cabins have been made available. VC facilities are already enabled between 3,240 court complexes and corresponding 1,272 jails,” it was said.

“Under e-courts Phase III, an amount of ₹228.48 crore has been earmarked for enhancing and upgrading the available infrastructure of VC in 10,200 establishments including 500 Jails, 700 district government hospitals and 9,000 courts,” the minister’s reply added.

For the last 10 years, the minister submitted that the union government has allocated a sum of ₹133.07 crore as central assistance for the development of Judicial infrastructure in Haryana.

Of this, ₹50 crore were allocated in 2015-16, followed by ₹15 crore in 2017-18, ₹11.91 crore in 2018-19, ₹14.06 crore in 2019-20, ₹22 crore in 2020-21 and ₹20.10 crore in 2023-24.