86 Describing as "unacceptable" the existence of 5,133 vacancies of judges in "Higher Judicial Service" and "Lower Judicial Service", the Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of the State governments and the High Courts whether the time for the ongoing recruitment of 4,180 judicial officers could be shortened.

Passing a suo motu order on the huge number of vacancies in the subordinate judiciary across the country, the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul sought the response from the High Courts/State governments as it noted that the recruitment process for filling 4,180 posts was already underway.