RAIPUR: The Chhattisgarh High Court continues to face a shortage of judges, with more than 73,000 cases pending despite the court recording a 106 per cent disposal rate in the first seven months of 2026.
Against a sanctioned strength of 22 judges, the High Court currently has 13 judges, including Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha. The strength is set to fall further this month with the retirement of Justice Sanjay S Agrawal and Justice Radhakishan Agrawal. Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra is joining the court following his transfer from Odisha, taking the effective working strength to 12 and leaving 10 posts vacant.
Chief Justice Sinha has prioritised reducing the case backlog since taking charge. The court had 75,667 pending cases as on January 1, 2026. While 30,831 new cases were filed from January onwards, coordinated disposal drives helped reduce the pendency to 73,751 cases as on July 27.
According to court officials, the efforts resulted in a net 2.53 per cent reduction in pending cases and a disposal rate of 106.21 per cent, meaning the court disposed of more cases than were instituted during the period.
The shortage of judges has remained a long-standing issue at the High Court. In its initial years, the court had three sitting judges against a sanctioned strength of six. In March 2005, then-Chief Justice A K Patnaik helped secure two additional posts, taking the sanctioned strength to eight.
After Chief Justice Patnaik was transferred, Chief Justice S R Nayak took charge in November 2005, during whose tenure the sanctioned strength was increased to 10. The sanctioned strength was subsequently raised to 22, but appointments have continued to lag behind vacancies caused by transfers and retirements.
High Court Bar Association president Rajneesh Singh Baghel stressed the need for timely replacement of retiring judges.
He said that besides appointing more judges, the recruitment process should be carried out alongside impending retirements to prevent prolonged vacancies and speed up case disposal.
The Chhattisgarh High Court was established on November 1, 2000, as the 19th High Court of India for the newly created state under the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000.
