BHUBANESWAR: The state’s judicial system is facing a significant shortage of judges and judicial officers even as courts grapple with a heavy backlog of cases.
Data placed in the Rajya Sabha by Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal shows 15 vacancies in the Orissa High Court and 329 vacancies in the district and subordinate judiciary.
Against a sanctioned strength of 33 judges, the Orissa High Court has only 18 working judges, leaving nearly 45 per cent of posts vacant. In the district judiciary, 854 judges are in position against 1,183 sanctioned posts, resulting in a vacancy of 329. Odisha ranks seventh among states in terms of vacant district judge posts.
The vacancy position comes amid a massive backlog of cases. As of July 16, 2026, the Orissa High Court had 1,69,320 pending cases. Of these, 69,684 had been pending for more than five years, 38,866 for over 10 years, 7,035 for more than 20 years and 376 for over 30 years.
The situation is considerably more challenging in district and subordinate courts, which had 18,68,323 pending cases on the same date. As many as 7,66,177 cases had remained pending for over five years, while 3,07,216 were pending for more than 10 years. Another 45,333 cases had crossed the 20-year mark and 4,441 had been pending for more than 30 years.
The Centre said filling vacancies in the higher judiciary is a continuous and collaborative process involving the judiciary and executive. Under Articles 217 and 224 of the Constitution and the Memorandum of Procedure, High Court collegiums are expected to initiate proposals at least six months before vacancies arise.
However, the Union government acknowledged that this timeline is ‘rarely observed’. Only candidates recommended by the Supreme Court collegium are appointed as High Court judges.
Across India, 7,310 judicial posts are vacant against a sanctioned strength of 30,868. Karnataka has the highest number of vacancies at 1,640, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 1,082 and Maharashtra 897.