Over half of district judges in Delhi lack official residences

Delhi faces severe housing shortage for judicial officers, leading to long commutes and inadequate living conditions.

There is an acute shortage of official accommodation for judicial officers in Delhi, with over half of the district judges lacking government housing. Against the sanctioned strength of 897 judicial officers, only 348 residences are available, leaving a shortfall of 549 residences, as per a Delhi High Court document issued in March.

This shortfall has not been addressed despite the judiciary’s growing strength. The number of government homes has remained stagnant since 2018-19. Failure to construct new residences has left many judicial officers struggling to secure affordable housing in the city.

The house rent allowance (HRA) provided to judicial officers is “grossly inadequate” for procuring suitable accommodation in the national capital. For an entry-level judge in the Delhi Judicial Service, the HRA stands at approximately ₹21,000.

As the cost of a modest rental property in the city is no less than ₹50,000 per month, it is impracticable for several judicial officers to rent suitable and appropriate accommodation near the court, said Shefali Barnala Tandon, Additional Sessions Judge and secretary of the Judicial Service Association of Delhi. “Many judges are forced to reside in Faridabad, Noida, and Gurgaon, leading to long and exhausting commutes,” she said.

She said nothing has changed in terms of construction of additional flats for judges in the past seven years. “Rather, it has worsened because we now have an additional batch of 126 judicial officers without any accommodation for them,” she said.

In January 2024, the Supreme Court, while adjudicating a case on pay, pension and service conditions of the district judiciary in the country, had observed that there is a dearth of government quarters. “The work of a judicial officer is not confined to the working hours rendered in the course of judicial duties in the court. Every judicial officer is required to work before and after the court working hours,” the court had said, reminding that providing adequate official accommodation to judicial officers has to be necessarily a priority for all.

Currently, there are only three residential complexes for district judges in Delhi — the Karkardooma Court Complex (55 units), Saket Court Complex (128 units), and Rohini Court Complex (48 units). Another 117 units have been allocated from the judicial pool in government colonies such as Model Town, Timarpur, and Civil Lines.