New Delhi: The Judiciary in Odisha is facing acute shortage of judges in the High Court and judicial officers in the district and subordinate courts.
According to the Union Law and Justice Ministry, the approved strength of judges in Orissa High Court is 27, but there are only 15 judges as 12 posts are lying vacant.
The sanctioned strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts is 912 out of which 164 posts are vacant. The actual strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts is 748.
Minister of State for Law and Justice and Corporate Affairs PP Chaudhary in a written reply to a question asked by Bhatruhari Mahtab (BJD) said the Union government has raised the strength of High Court Judges from 906 in June 2014 to 1079 in December, 2018 and judges of district and subordinate courts from 20, 214 in 2014 to 22,833 in 2018.
Accordingly, the sanctioned strength of judges in districts and subordinate courts in the state has been raised from 690 in 2014 to 912 in 2018 while the working strength increased from 569 in 2014 to 748 in 2018.
The minister also said based on the population figures of 2011 and as per available information regarding sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court, high courts, district and subordinate courts in 2018, the judge – population ratio in the country worked out to be 19.78 judges per million population in comparison to 17.48 judges per million population in 2014.
Notably, the Supreme Court directed the Odisha government January 17 to fill vacancies in subordinate courts and also improve the infrastructure of the judiciary in the state.