He pointed out that there are only six judges from Scheduled Tribes (STs) and 27 from minority communities. He said that 84 women judges are also included in these appointments. The Law Minister said that in the total appointments, the number of general category judges is more than 77 percent.
Rijiju gave a written answer to a question of BJP MP Sushil Modi.
Noting that the constitutional provisions guiding the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and High Courts do not provide for reservation for any particular caste or class, Rijiju said the government continued to strive to ensure social diversity in the Supreme Court Is.
In his reply, he said, “The government is committed to bring social diversity in the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and has been requesting the Chief Justices of the High Courts to ensure social diversity while sending proposals for appointment of judges. Due consideration should be given to the names of suitable candidates from castes, scheduled tribes, other backward classes, minority communities and women.
He told that since 2018, a total of 30 judges have been appointed in the Supreme Court. Eight judges were appointed in the year 2018, 10 in the year 2019, none in the year 2020, nine in the year 2021 and three in the year 2022.
He said that of the district judges across the country, 612 are from Scheduled Castes, 204 from Scheduled Tribes, 1,329 from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), while 1,406 are women.
He said that in all district and subordinate courts of civil judges (junior division), 1,270 belong to Scheduled Castes, 465 to Scheduled Tribes, 2,055 to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), while 3,684 are women.
According to him, of the Civil Judges (Senior Division), 710 are from Scheduled Castes, 278 from Scheduled Tribes, 1,251 from OBCs and 1,574 are women.
It may be noted that in the month of January last, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice had told the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, underlining that the onus is on the judiciary to ensure diversity in the bench of the court, that the number of high-ranking judges appointed in the last five years Of the total judges of the courts, 79 percent were from the general category (the so-called upper caste).
The Justice Department of the ministry had also made a presentation in this regard before the committee headed by BJP MP Sushil Modi.
The data shows that a total of 537 judges were appointed in various high courts from 2018 to December 19, 2022, of which 79 per cent were from the general category, 11 per cent from other backward classes (OBCs) and 2.6 per cent from minorities. The share of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes was 2.8 percent and 1.3 percent respectively.
It has been told that the ministry was not sure about the social background of the 20 judges.
In 2018, the ministry had asked people recommended by the Supreme Court collegium to fill a form with details of their socio-economic background. In March 2022, in a reply to the Rajya Sabha, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had said that ‘the government is committed to social diversity in the appointment of judges in the higher judiciary’.
(With inputs from news agency Bhasha)
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