NEW DELHI: The law ministry has notified appointment of four additional judges as permanent judges in the High Court of Rajasthan and one in the Uttarakhand HC last week. The vacancies in the 24 HCs, however, still remain at 427.Against a sanctioned strength of 1,079 judges, the 24 HCs currently have a working strength of 652 judges. The law ministry has also notified appointment of Justice Arup Goswami, senior most judge of the Gauhati HC, as acting chief justice of the HC after incumbent Justice Ajit Singh retires on Thursday.The four additional judges who have been made permanent in the Rajasthan HC are Justices AK Gaur, Manoj Garg, Inderjeet Singh and Virendra Mathur. In Uttarakhand HC, Justice Sharad Sharma has been made a permanent Judge of the HC.More than 160 recommendations of various HCs for appointment as judges are currently pending at various stages. The government had recently forwarded a list of 126 recommendations to the Supreme Court collegium after vetting which is currently pending with the apex court. Another set of 40 recommendations are pending scrutiny in the government.In the list of 126 recommendations for High Court judgeship, the government had expressed reservation on around 50% of the cases citing different issues after a thorough background check by the Intelligence Bureau and assessments of credentials of advocates recommended for elevation.At least 30-40 candidates didn’t meet eligibility criteria on the minimum annual income requirements, the source said. It is mandatory to have an average annual income of Rs 7 lakh as an advocate in the preceding five years for a lawyer to be recommended for elevation for HC judgeship. Performance evaluation has been done on each recommendation by reviewing judgments cited by each candidate. During the evaluation, which took over 3-4 months, law officials have gone through at least 1,000-1,200 judgments cited by the candidates.