CUTTACK: Justice Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo, Justice Radha Krishna Pattanaik and Justice Sashikanta Mishra were sworn in as judges of the Orissa High Court on Tuesday.
The judges were administered the oath of office by Chief Justice S Muralidhar in a simple ceremony in the High Court premises. While Justice Sahoo was elevated from the Bar, Justice Pattanaik and Justice Mishra were elevated from judicial officer.
Starting as a lawyer in 1999, Justice Sahoo was appointed as additional standing counsel for the State government in 2005 and as additional government advocate in 2014. Prior to his appointment as Judge of High Court, Justice Pattanaik was the secretary of State Law department. He had joined as a District Judge after qualifying for the senior judicial service in 2009. He was District Judge, Ganjam, before his elevation.
The Supreme Court Collegium in its meeting held on September 29 approved the proposal for elevation of two advocates Aditya Kumar Mohapatra, and Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo, and two judicial officers Radha Krishna Pattanaik and Sashikanta Mishra. However, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice had notified the appointment of Justice Sahoo, Justice Pattanaik and Justice Mishra on October 13, while the name of advocate Aditya Kumar Mohapatra has not been cleared by the Centre so far.
With the joining of the three judges, the number of judges in the High Court went up to 17 against a sanctioned strength of 27. Persisting vacancies is the reason behind case backlog in the Court. As on October 16, 2021, the number of cases pending in the High Court was 1, 83,297.