Supreme Court directs Centre to immediately clear Collegium recommendations regarding appointment of High Court judges

Expressing its strong displeasure over the unfilled vacancies of judges in different High Courts across the country, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union government to expeditiously approve the recommendations made by the Collegium for the same.

The Bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan pulled up the Government after it came to know that over seven lakh criminal appeals were pending in different High Courts across the country.

The top court of the country further expressed disappointment over the figures, which stated that in the Allahabad High Court, which had pendency of over two lakh criminal appeals, only 79 judges were working, while the sanctioned strength was 160.

It noted that the Bombay High Court was functioning with 66 judges, when it had a sanctioned strength of 94. The Calcutta High Court, having a sanctioned strength of 72, was functioning with just 44 judges. The Delhi High Court had only 41 judges out of the sanctioned strength of 60.

Pointing out that smaller High Courts such as the Delhi High Court were facing a huge pendency of criminal appeals, despite being small in size, the Apex Court said the issue has to be handled at a different level.

Referring to the recent data published by the Supreme Court, it said 29 recommendations made by the Supreme Court Collegium since November 9, 2022, were pending with the Centre.

Out of these, four recommendations were made in 2023, 13 in 2024 and 12 in 2025. Besides, there were certain reiterated proposals of the Collegium, which were pending approval from the Centre.

The Bench said it hoped and believed that the pending proposals would be cleared by the Government of India at the earliest.

The Apex Court made these observations while considering a suo motu case taken to consider the issues relating to the grant of bail.