The Supreme Court is hearing petitions pertaining to vacant posts in various courts across the country.

On Thursday, the top court was informed on the status of pending vacancies in the courts by various States.

Amicus curiae Shyam Divan apprised the bench comprising CJI Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul, K M Joseph through affidavit that in West Bengal and Assam required buildings such as court house and residential complexes were still under construction.

Taking strong exception to the submissions of Divan, the bench condemned it calling it “lethargy” on the part of West Bengal and Assam. “The government will simply say in their affidavit that we will do the needful by 2025, 2035 so on and so forth. We want West Bengal to state in its affidavit that 75 court rooms are under construction along with 39 residential units,” the bench said, adding “Chief secretary and finance secretary to be physically present on the next date”.

The bench then took stock of the vacancies pertaining to Delhi and slammed the Delhi government for not filling up the vacancies.

“Whereas you advertised for 50 posts earlier, you increased that number to 147 on November 21, subsequent to our observation about your attitude, a little push from the Supreme Court and you start working. There is a lack of infrastructure to accommodate high numbers of fresh recruits. Infrastructure is not your job, it’s the job of the state. You do your job and the state will do it’s own,” the bench noted.

“Has the construction for 167 courtrooms as required been started? When nothing has even started how do you plan to finish the process in time,” CJI said while rebuking Registrar General of Delhi High Court.

The matter will be next heard on December 5.

—India Legal Bureau