Orissa High Court, which has a sanctioned 27 posts of judges, is at present functioning with only 15, including the Chief Justice while two more judges will superannuate within six months.
In this backdrop, legal practitioners and litigants are pressing hard for filling up all the vacant posts of judges at earliest.So far as pendency of cases is concerned, experts are stressing upon raising sanctioned posts to 42.As per statistics of National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) as on date, at least 1,72,123 cases are pending inHigh Court out of which 53,046 are criminal matters. Among pending cases, 45,665 are 5-10 years old while 27,841 are 10-20 years old. There are also 4,421 cases of 20-30 years old; and that apart, 833 cases are awaiting adjudication for more than 30 years, said sources. NJDG sources further stated that 27,097 cases are pending in High Court for 3-5 years, 34,046 cases for 1-3 years and 32,220 cases are waiting adjudication for less than one year period.
If cases of already-abolished Odisha Administrative Tribunal (OAT) are transferred, litigation burden of High Court is likely to cross 2.5-lakh mark by end of 2021, sources said.