For every 10 lakh people, India has 21.03 judges: Centre to Parliament

New Delhi, Dec 10: India has 21.03 judges per 10 lakh people in the country, Centre informed Lok Sabha on Friday. "The judge to population ratio (judge per million population) with respect to sanctioned strength of judges is 21.03 as on October 31, 2021," Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply.

In order to calculate the judge-population ratio per million population in a particular year, the Department of Justice uses the criterion of using the population as per Census 2011 and as per available information regarding sanctioned strength of judges in Supreme Court, the high courts and district and subordinate courts in the particular year, he explained as per PTI.

However, he stated that the state-wise data in this regard is not being maintained. According to him, the Law Commission does not consider the judge-population ratio to be a scientific criterion for determining the adequacy of the judge strength in the country.

"The Law Commission found that in the absence of complete and scientific approach to data collection across various high courts in the country, the 'rate of disposal' method, to calculate the number of additional judges required to clear the backlog of cases as well as to ensure that new backlog is not created, is more pragmatic and useful," he said. PTI