In view of the shortage of judges and pending cases in various courts of the State, former judges have demanded to increase the number of judges along with opening up of new courts for fast trials of the cases.
As quite a large number of criminal and civil cases are lying pending in the courts and fresh cases are being registered, there is a need for increasing the number of judges to at least 1,500 in the subordinate courts apart from setting up of new courts for speedy trial, said the experts and former judges.
While there are 716 sanctioned judge posts for subordinate courts in the State, the Government has appointed 598 judges and 118 judge posts of different ranks are still lying vacant.
According to official records, a total of 3,08,95,968 cases are pending in all the High Courts and subordinate courts in the country by December 2015, of which 12,33,492 cases are pending in Orissa High Court and lower courts across the State.
There were 10, 64,039 cases including 2, 63,879 civil and 8, 00,160 criminal cases pending in the lower courts during the period. Total 66,496 civil and 3,17,303 criminal cases are pending for the past five years, 1,33,378 criminal cases are pending for past ten years in lower courts.
A total of 68,715 civil and 3, 33,208 criminal cases have been registered in the lower courts of the State during the year 2015.
On the other hand, the importance of the cases seems to decay due to delay in disposal of the cases for years.
While the final judgement of the sensational murder case of Parsuram Satpathy came after 40 years of the incident, verdict on the Chhabirani murder case was heard after over 25 years.
The verdict on the 1992 Cuttack hooch tragedy is stilled awaited, sources said.