Bar and Bench: few judicial officers make it to High Courts despite years of experience

The elevation of seven district judges to the Delhi High Court recently has once again drawn attention to the narrow path from the subordinate judiciary to the higher Bench, where judicial officers account for only a fraction of the judges despite spending decades deciding cases at the trial-court level.

With Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya having administered the oath of office to the new judges, the Delhi High Court’s working strength has risen to 50 against a sanctioned strength of 60, of which 19 judges have been drawn from the subordinate courts.

While Article 217 of the Constitution provides two distinct streams for High Court appointments — members of the Bar and judicial officers — it prescribes no fixed numerical ratio between them. However, a conventional norm has been that two-thirds of vacancies are drawn from the Bar while only one-third are from the judicial service cadre.