Governance woes: Why filling govt vacancies should be India's top priority

Addressing unfilled positions in courts, police, and hospitals could boost productivity and ease citizens' lives

A column appearing on the first day of the New Year (based on the Gregorian Calendar) is a wonderful opportunity for any writer to focus on the big picture and the big issues of any subject they choose. I will, however, eschew that temptation and look at a smaller and simpler issue pertaining to the Indian economy and governance. The issue is about this question: Could filling up just existing vacancies in various government and regulatory bodies help the Indian economy become more productive, while also benefitting businesses and citizens? I would like to think that governance would improve dramatically if the Union government, state governments, and various regulators concentrated on this.

 

Take, for instance, our justice system with courts clogged by a backlog of cases running into millions. A recent report says that just in various high courts across the country, over 5.8 million cases — some 4.26 million civil matters and almost 1.6 million criminal cases — are pending. Of this, 62,000 cases have been pending for more than 30 years. In subordinate courts, over 45 million cases are pending. Experts suggest that even if no new cases were filed, it would still take several decades for the courts to clear them.

 

A good part of the problem stems from the acute shortage of judges at every level. Many high courts in the country are operating with less than 50 per cent of their sanctioned strength. In reply to a question in Parliament last year, Minister of State for Law and Justice (Independent Charge) Arjun Meghwal admitted that at the end of January 2024, 331 of the total sanctioned 1,114 vacancies for judges in various high courts were vacant. Similarly, there were over 5,000 vacancies across various subordinate courts in the country.

 

It is not just about the courts — the various tribunals and other regulators are also facing similar shortages. As of November 2024, the National Company Law Tribunal had 43 members in service against the authorised strength of 63. The average time taken for the resolution process of an insolvency petition today has gone up to 716 days, far exceeding the stipulated maximum of 330 days, even for cases involving litigation. Another tribunal — the Debt Recovery Tribunal — is paralysed because many do not have a presiding officer.

 

It is a similar story for the Executive, which has been grappling with unfilled vacancies for years on end. Most state police departments have thousands of vacancies. The Bureau of Police Research and Development had some time ago estimated that the total police vacancies in the country account for 20 per cent of the sanctioned strength.

 

The vacancies, especially at the lower levels of bureaucracy, typically remain unfilled for years. The Indian Railways has unfilled posts running into hundreds of thousands, despite the Comptroller and Auditor General of India castigating it for not even filling up enough positions required for ensuring the safety function. In government hospitals and schools, whether run by the Centre or the states, staff shortages frequently make headlines. Across virtually every government department, the situation remains the same.

 

And these are sanctioned strengths — which may or may not reflect the ideal strength required today. These numbers were decided decades ago, though the population of the country has increased manifold since then. The Supreme Court, for instance, is likely the only court that functions at its full sanctioned strength — yet it has its own backlog and pendency, primarily because the number of additional judges it requires is still being examined and debated.

 

This leads us to the paradoxical situation. India’s enormous unemployment problem may well be reduced significantly if all vacancies were to be filled on a war footing. Sure, it would still be a drop in the ocean of total unemployment statistics, but every little bit helps. More importantly, filling up just the current vacancies in the sanctioned strength will help reduce pain at every level of a citizen’s life. So why don’t governments — and we are talking both the Union and state — take decisive action to address this?

 

Some of this can be attributed to inefficiency and bureaucratic hurdles. Newspapers frequently report on government recruitment examinations being scheduled only to be cancelled or postponed due to question paper leaks. In other cases, it may be budgetary worries — holding off on filling vacancies when revenues are lacklustre is a time-honoured practice for both the government and the private sector. There may also be worries about the pension liabilities in the future.

 

Concerns about automation, digitisation, and other technology advancements reducing manpower requirements may be at play too. All these are valid reasons but sitting on appointments is not the solution, except in a few areas where automation would genuinely reduce the need for filling all sanctioned vacancies.

 

In other areas, however — such as courts, hospitals, and police departments — unfilled vacancies lead to delays, inefficiencies, and productivity losses, resulting in potential gross domestic product lost. The governments need to understand this. 

 

The author is former editor of Businessworld and Business Today, and founder of Prosaic View, an editorial consultancy