In 230th Law Commission Report, it is reported that all most every High Court, there is huge pendency of cases

s and the present strength of the judges can hardly be said to be sufficient to cope with the alarming situation. The institution of cases is much more than the disposal and it adds to arrears of cases. Further, the commission added that the present strength of the judges should be increased manifold according to the pendency, present and probable. It is also necessary that the work of the High Courts is decentralized, that is, more Benches are established in all States. If there is manifold increase in the strength of the judges and the staff, all cannot be housed in one campus. Therefore, the establishment of new Benches is necessary. On the above and the on going demand for establishment of High Court Benches, lets examine the pendency of cases of Odisha High Court. As per the Odisha High Court quarterly Court News following are the figures on accumulating pendency of Main Cases (There are other misc. cases also instituted in the High Courts.)in the High Court of Odisha. OPENING BALANCE OF PENDING OF CASES 153695 155874 159017 160007 165797 169904 174454 177525 183476 189644 CLOSING BALANCE OF PENDING OF CASES 155874 159017 160007 165797 169904 174454 177525 183476 189644 194767 NO OF WORKING JUDGES ( TOTAL SANCTIONED STRENGTH = 22) 17 17 17 16 15 14 14 12 12 14 15

QUARTER Mar-11 Apr-11 Jul-11 Oct-11 Jan-12 Apr-12 Jul-12 Oct-12 Jan-13 Apr-13 AVERAGE

CASES ADDED IN THE QUARTER 19382 19074 20412 17755 18686 17161 20057 19136 18907 20707 19128

CASES DISPOSSED OFF IN THE QUARTER 17203 15931 19422 11965 14579 12611 16986 13185 12739 15584 15021

ACCUMULATION PER QUARTER 2179 3143 990 5790 4107 4550 3071 5951 6168 5123 4107

From the above data, it is quite apparent that in each quarter, on average, we are accumulating 4107 cases. One must recognize the efforts of the Judiciary that on average they are disposing 15021 cases in a quarter. The average working judges of the Odisha High Court is 15. That means there is absolutely no chance that we will ever cease the ever accumulating pendency of cases. So what about our constitutional commitment of securing justice for all? If decentralization of High Courts is not the solution of the present problem, then what are the alternatives? Can our constitutional commitment of securing the Justice, Equality, Liberty and protecting the Dignity of the individual possible without that decentralization of High Courts? For me it is no more a local or regional issues. It is indeed a national issue which requires immediate attention.