Lawyers of Calcutta High Court have demanded that the 17 vacant judge posts in the court be immediately filled up.

In a letter to Chief Justice S.S. Nijjar, the court’s bar association recently requested him to take all possible steps to appoint new judges.

The lawyers criticised state law minister Rabilal Moitra for his statement in the Assembly that eight judges were soon going to be appointed in the court. According to the lawyers, the state government has not made any effort to fill up the posts.

“The Centre recently increased the sanctioned strength of Calcutta High Court judges from 50 to 58. In the 10 years when the sanctioned strength was 50, the court never had a full quota of judges. Currently, the court has 39 judges. The number of pending cases is 3.2 lakh,” said Bidyut Kiran Mukherjee, the president of the court’s bar association.

“The state government has only approved the sanctioned posts. That does not mean it is going to appoint new judges,” said Mukherjee.

Forty per cent of the judges are appointed from higher judicial services. The rest are chosen from applicants among advocates. Generally, three lawyers’ associations — recommend names to a three-judge committee when the state wants to fill up vacancies. The judges forward the names to the state government. After its approval, the committee sends the names to the Supreme Court, which forwards the list to the President.

According to a high court source, a year and a half ago, names of five lawyers were send to the apex court by the panel. “The apex court is yet to send the names to the President,” he said.