Lower court judges: Maharashtra's sanctioned posts went from 2,190 in February to 5,247 in August, Karnataka's from 1,395 to 2,812; the answers do not say why

What was asked

The Lok Sabha asked the Ministry of Law and Justice for the sanctioned strength, working strength and vacancies of judges in the Supreme Court, the High Courts and the subordinate courts, state by state; the appointments made and vacancies filled in the last five years; whether the government had assessed the effect of vacancies on pending cases; and the steps taken to speed up appointments.

The ministry answered on 7 August 2026. Annexure II gives, for 36 rows of States and Union Territories, the sanctioned, working and vacant posts of judges in the District and Subordinate Courts as on 3 August 2026, from the Nyaya Vikas Portal 2.0. Its answer of 13 February 2026 gave the same table, for the same rows and from the same portal, as on 11 February 2026.

Two tables, two states

Between the two tables, sanctioned posts across India rose by 4,974, from 25,894 to 30,868. Maharashtra and Karnataka account for 4,474 of them. In the other 34 rows, posts rose by 500 in all.

Maharashtra’s sanctioned posts went from 2,190 to 5,247, and its working strength, the judges in post, from 1,940 to 4,350: more than doubled. Its vacancies rose from 250 to 897. Across India, working strength rose by 2,531; 2,410 of that is Maharashtra.

Karnataka’s sanctioned posts went from 1,395 to 2,812, while its working strength moved from 1,129 to 1,172. Its vacancies rose from 266 to 1,640, which is 58.3% of its posts and 22.4% of all the vacancies in the table. Across India, vacancies rose by 2,443; 2,021 of the rise is in the two states, and in the other 34 rows vacancies rose by 422.

The same answer gives sanctioned strength year by year. It rose by 1,408 from 2021 to 2025, from 24,492 to 25,900, and then by 4,968 to 30,868 in 2026: more than three times the rise of the four years before. The answer does not say why.

Three figures for Karnataka

Answering a starred question on 24 July 2026, the ministry gave Karnataka’s sanctioned strength in District and Subordinate Courts as 1,398 as on 31 May 2026, as provided by the High Court, with 1,278 court halls available. That is 3 more than the February table’s 1,395. The August table, as on 3 August 2026, gives 2,812. The court halls in the July answer are 91.4% of the posts it gives, and 45.4% of the posts in the August table.

On the August figures, Karnataka has the highest share of posts vacant of any State or UT except Lakshadweep, where 3 of 5 posts are vacant. None of the three answers says whether Karnataka created posts between May and August, or whether the portal counts something the High Court’s figure does not.

Maharashtra, the same day

The ministry’s answer to Unstarred Question 3239, on the same day as Unstarred Question 3251, uses the August figure: Maharashtra has 5,247 sanctioned posts, 897 vacant (17.09%), and 46.69 judges per million people, against the Law Commission’s recommendation of 50 that the answer cites. On the February figure of 2,190, the same calculation gives 19.49.

The February table splits every row into three cadres: civil judges (junior division), civil judges (senior division) and district judges. The August table gives only totals, so it cannot be seen in which cadre Maharashtra’s 3,057 more posts and 2,410 more judges are. The answers do not say whether the August figure counts courts or posts that the February one did not.

The High Courts and the Supreme Court

As on 3 August 2026, the Supreme Court had 35 judges against 38 posts, and the 25 High Courts had 781 against 1,122, with 341 vacant. In the answer of 6 February 2026, the High Courts had 816 judges and 306 vacancies as on 19 January 2026. Part (b) of the August answer says 22 judges were appointed to High Courts in 2026 up to 3 August 2026; it does not give the number who left. Allahabad has the most vacancies, 53 of 160; J & K and Ladakh the highest share, 13 of 25.

What the answer does not give

Asked for the appointments made and vacancies filled in the last five years, the answer gives appointments to the Supreme Court and the High Courts year by year, but for the District and Subordinate Courts only the sanctioned and working strength for each year. It does not say how many judicial officers were appointed to them.

Asked whether the government had assessed the effect of vacancies on pending cases, the answer lists the factors on which disposal of cases depends and does not say whether any assessment was made.

Both state tables print West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar in one merged row with one set of figures, so the two cannot be told apart.

Adds up

Every column of both state tables adds up exactly to its printed total, as does Annexure I for the High Courts, and in every row sanctioned minus working equals the printed vacancy. In the February table, Haryana's civil judge (senior division) cadre shows 133 judges working against 132 posts and Rajasthan's civil judge (junior division) cadre shows 577 judges working against 567 posts; the table prints those vacancies as negative numbers. The answer of 6 February 2026 gives the same 25,894 sanctioned posts as on 5 February 2026, with 21,046 judges working.

Got it right

The answers give every State and UT, from the same portal, in tables that add up, and the two answers of 7 August 2026 agree with each other: Unstarred Question 3239 gives the same 7,310 vacancies, 30,868 posts and Maharashtra’s 5,247 and 897. Working strength in the District and Subordinate Courts has risen every year since 2022, from 19,319 to 23,558. Chandigarh and Daman & Diu have no vacant post, and among the States with at least 500 posts, Kerala has the smallest share vacant, 40 of 614. Between February and August, vacancies fell in Chandigarh, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Sikkim. Meghalaya High Court has every post filled.

Every State and UT

How we did this

• Sources: the Ministry of Law and Justice’s answers to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 3251 (7 August 2026), Unstarred Question 2336 (13 February 2026), Starred Question 95 (24 July 2026), Unstarred Question 3239 (7 August 2026) and Unstarred Question 1362 (6 February 2026).
• The rows of both state tables and of Annexure I were read from the answers’ Word files by a script and checked against their PDFs. Every column was summed against its printed total and every row checked for sanctioned minus working equal to vacancy.
• The two state tables have the same 36 rows, so each row is compared directly. West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar share one row in both.
• We searched the Lok Sabha’s index of answers over its last three sessions for others on judges’ posts and vacancies, and read those with figures; none after 7 August 2026 gives state-wise figures.
• Download the data: subordinate-court-judges-by-state-2026.csv. Our method and labels are on the Data Audit method page.

Questions

Corrections

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