Delhi High Court Strength Rises to 50 as Seven Trial Court Judges Sworn In

Seven judicial officers from the district judiciary took their oaths of office for the Delhi High Court on Monday, raising the active judicial strength of the institution to 50 judges.

Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya administered the oath to the new appointees during a formal swearing-in ceremony held on the high court premises at 10 am. The central government formally notified the appointments on September 19 following recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium.

The newly elevated judges transitioning from trial courts to the high court bench include Nivedita Anil Sharma, Nisha Sahay Saxena, Sanjay Sharma, Bharat Parashar, Aditi Choudhary, Dinesh Bhatt, and Arun Bhardwaj. Among these appointees, Nivedita Anil Sharma and Nisha Sahay Saxena assumed their roles as permanent judges of the high court under Article 217, holding office until the retirement age of 62.

The remaining five appointees, namely Sanjay Sharma, Bharat Parashar, Dinesh Bhatt, Arun Bhardwaj, and Aditi Choudhary, were appointed as additional judges under Article 224 for an initial temporary term not exceeding two years to address arrears or increased caseloads. While permanent judges are appointed under Article 217, additional judges undergo Collegium performance appraisal for confirmation while possessing identical judicial powers and jurisdiction as permanent judges while serving on the bench. With these seven additions, the high court reaches a total operational strength of 50 judges against its sanctioned strength of 60 posts.

The Supreme Court Collegium evaluates dossier materials including Intelligence Bureau reports, state observations, judgment assessments, and consultee judges' feedback before issuing final recommendation resolutions. Under the Memorandum of Procedure, which incorporates the Collegium system established by the Second and Third Judges Cases to ensure judicial primacy, the process requires thorough constitutional filtering.

In practice, executive clearance frequently deviates from judicial timelines, with uncontentious names taking several weeks to months, while reiterated or contested recommendations have been held up for more than a year. Under the timeline laid down by the Supreme Court in PLR Projects Ltd v. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, the Central Government is required to issue appointment notifications within 3 to 4 weeks of receiving recommendations or unanimous reiterations from the Supreme Court Collegium.

The appointments in Delhi formed part of a broader notification issued by the Union Law Ministry, which cleared a total of 14 new judges across four different high courts nationwide. Alongside the Delhi appointments, the judicial expansions covered benches in Karnataka, Jharkhand, and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

In the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court, judicial officer Yash Paul Bourney received an appointment as a judge. Concurrently, Manoj Prasad, Akhil Kumar, and Ram Sharma were appointed as judges to the Jharkhand High Court, while Usharani, Kuruba Shanthappa Bharath Kumar, and Nerale Veerabhadraiah Bhavani took office as additional judges of the Karnataka High Court.

Despite the latest round of elevations, judicial vacancies persist across the country. Official data compiled up to September 1 highlights that the 25 high courts across India collectively have 304 vacant posts against a total sanctioned strength of 1,122 judges.

The Allahabad High Court maintains the highest number of vacant posts in the country with 53 openings, followed by the Calcutta High Court with 23 vacancies, and the Punjab and Haryana High Court with 21 vacant positions. Judicial authorities noted that several other collegium recommendations remain pending due to ongoing procedural considerations.