Delhi HC gets five new judges

New Delhi: Days after the Supreme Court expressed deep anguish over delay in appointment of judges in high courts despite collegium recommendations, the Delhi High Court has got five more judges who were today administered oath of office as additional judges.

With this, the total strength of judges in the high court has gone up to 39. However, the sanctioned strength of judges in the high court here is 60.

The five new judges — Anil Kumar Chawla, Vinod Goel, Chander Shekhar, Anu Malhotra and Yogesh Khanna — were administered oath of office by Chief Justice G Rohini.

Vinod Goel was the Registrar General and Chandra Shekhar the Registrar (Vigilance) of the high court. The other three were officers of Delhi Higher Judicial Services and posted as judges in the subordinate judiciary.

At present, there are around 62,000 cases pending in the Delhi High Court which turned 50 on October 31 this year.

On October 28, an apex court bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur had pulled up the government saying it cannot bring the judiciary to a “grinding halt” by not appointing high court judges despite the recommendations of its collegium long ago.