Cuttack: As many as 1.69 lakh cases are pending before the Orissa High Court, which is already grappling with shortage of judges.
Currently the HC is functioning with 17 judges including the Chief Justice, against a sanctioned strength of 27 judges. Shortage of judges leads to delay in judgement and piling up of pendency of cases.
Justice BK Nayak of the Orissa HC has retired from service February 1, but no new appointment has been made in his place so far.
At a time when the HC is yet to get the full strength of sanctioned judges, filing of more cases in comparison to the number of judges has increased the pendency. Till February 6, there were 1,69,308 pending cases in the HC.
Meanwhile, the state government’s decision to abolish the state administrative tribunal (SAT) may turn the situation from bad to worse. Besides, the tribunal is also facing shortage of judicial officials. No new appointments are being made after retirement of judicial and administrative officials in SAT as well, sources said.
According to sources, 67,369 cases are pending before the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack benches and two circuit benches in Berhampur and Sambalpur of the SAT. The highest number of over 27,000 cases is pending before the Cuttack bench.
According to the government guidelines, the SAT should have eight members including a chairperson. The tribunal, at present, is functioning with only three members.
Some lawyers had filed a petition before the HC over the shortage of judges and urged the court to take immediate measures to fill-up the vacancies. The petition is also pending with the HC.
PNN
