The Chhattisgarh High Court is facing a significant shortage of judges, with more than 73,000 cases pending even as the court recorded a disposal rate of over 106 per cent during the first seven months of 2026. Against a sanctioned strength of 22 judges, the court currently has 13, including Chief Justice Ramesh Sinha, with its effective working strength expected to fall to 12 this month. The reduction will follow the retirement of Justice Sanjay S Agrawal and Justice Radhakishan Agrawal. At the same time, Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra is set to join the Chhattisgarh High Court following his transfer from Odisha.

Once the retirements take effect, the court will have 12 serving judges against 22 sanctioned positions, leaving 10 posts vacant. Chief Justice Sinha has made reducing the backlog a priority since taking charge. The High Court had 75,667 pending cases on January 1, 2026. Between January and July, 30,831 new cases were instituted, but coordinated efforts to increase disposal helped bring the number of pending cases down to 73,751 as of July 27. According to court officials, the figures represent a net reduction of 2.53 per cent in the overall pendency.

The court recorded a disposal rate of 106.21 per cent during the period, meaning judges disposed of more cases than were instituted. Despite the improved disposal performance, the continuing shortage of judges remains a major challenge because of the sheer volume of cases awaiting adjudication. The shortage is not a new problem for the Chhattisgarh High Court. In its early years, the court operated with only three sitting judges against a sanctioned strength of six.

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In March 2005, then-Chief Justice A K Patnaik helped secure two additional judicial posts, increasing the sanctioned strength to eight. The strength was subsequently raised further during the tenure of Chief Justice S R Nayak, who took charge in November 2005. The sanctioned strength was eventually increased to 22 judges, but the court has continued to experience vacancies caused by retirements and transfers. The gap between sanctioned and actual working strength has placed additional pressure on the available judges, even as efforts are being made to improve case disposal and prevent the backlog from increasing.

High Court Bar Association president Rajneesh Singh Baghel has called for a more timely system of judicial appointments. He said replacing judges before or around the time of their retirement would help prevent vacancies from remaining unfilled for extended periods. According to him, the recruitment and appointment process should be planned alongside impending retirements rather than beginning only after positions become vacant. The demand assumes importance given the volume of cases currently pending before the court.

While the disposal rate above 100 per cent demonstrates that the existing bench has been able to process cases at a faster pace than new cases were filed during the period, sustained reduction in pendency could remain difficult without adequate judicial strength. The Chhattisgarh High Court was established on November 1, 2000, as the 19th High Court of India for the newly created state of Chhattisgarh under the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000.

Since then, its sanctioned judicial strength has expanded substantially as the state's legal workload has grown. With the effective strength expected to fall to 12 judges, the immediate challenge before the High Court is to maintain its disposal performance while addressing a substantial pending caseload. Bar representatives have called for faster appointments to vacant posts, arguing that filling the sanctioned positions would strengthen the court's capacity to tackle the backlog and reduce delays in the disposal of cases.

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