The Orissa High Court Bar Association (OHCBA), led by its President-Senior Advocate Lalatendu Samantaray, held a press conference on Monday (August 17) to voice concerns of the Bar over low functional strength of High Court Judges and lack of regular appointments, against an ever-increasing docket pendency.

Addressing the media, Samantaray highlighted the “stand-still” situation in the High Court as the current working strength has reached down to 17 Judges (including the Chief Justice) against a sanctioned strength of 33 Judges. Moreover, two senior-most Judges (Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak and Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra) were recommended to be transferred out of the High Court earlier this month.

It was further underscored that Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Chittaranjan Dash are going to retire in this November, which will take the working strength to a meagre 13 Judges, leading to a 60% vacancy (a total 20 vacancies out of 33). He apprised about the General Body meeting of the OHCBA, which was held on 13 and 14 of this month, wherein the members of the Association vociferously raised the issue of judicial vacancies.

The head of the OHCBA also informed about the body's plan to submit a memorandum to the President of India, Chief Justice of India (CJI) and Judges of the Supreme Court Collegium urging them to promptly fill the existing vacancies of the Court.

“The existing vacancies ought to be filled as soon as possible. Any step-motherly attitude should not be shown to us. The OHCBA has authorized us to meet the CJI, Members of the Collegium and the President to let them know of our grievances. If those steps do not yield results, we have decided to approach the Supreme Court under Article 32 [of the Constitution] through a writ petition. If that also fails, we will be constrained to sit on a protest.”

Responding to media questions, the Bar Chief stated that more than 1.72 lakhs cases are currently pending before the High Court and with the current strength of Judges, it would be nearly impossible to decide even 50% of the pendency in a year. He, therefore, urged swift actions for filling all the remaining vacancies at the earliest.

Notably, the sanctioned strength of the High Court was increased to 33, i.e. 24 permanent and 9 Additional Judges, in 2022. Since then, the High Court has never witnessed its full working strength. The last appointment to the Court was made as back as in September 2023 when Justices Sibo Sankar Mishra and Ananda Chandra Behera (since retired) took oath.

At the beginning of this year, the Court had a working strength of 20 Judges. In January, senior Judge Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo (now retired) was appointed as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court. Subsequently, Justices Ananda Chandra Behera and Dixit Krishna Shripad retired in the months of May and July respectively, taking down the tally to 17.

On August 06, 2026, the Supreme Court Collegium headed by CJI Surya Kant recommended the transfer of Justice Manash Ranjan Pathak and Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra to the Gujarat High Court and the Chhattisgarh High Court respectively. Upon clearance of their transfers, the strength will come down to 15, which is slated to see a further downward slope to 13 with the superannuation of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice Chittaranjan Dash, if no fresh appointment is made in the meantime.

Also pertinent to mention that the High Court has remained unrepresented in the Supreme Court since the last eight years. The last Judge from the High Court who was elevated to the Apex Court was Justice Dipak Misra. Justice Misra was appointed to the top Court in October 2011 and he held the office of the CJI from August 2017 to October 2018. No Judge from the Orissa High Court has been appointed to the Supreme Court for the last 15 years.