Orissa High Court Explained

The Orissa High Court is the High Court for the Indian state of Odisha.

The then Bengal Presidency was a vast province including present day Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal. It was difficult to administratively manage such a vast area, inhabited by people speaking different languages and having different traditions. Administrative exigencies required separation of such areas which originally did not form part of Bengal. So, the new province of Bihar and Orissa was formed on 22 March 1912. However, the said new province of Bihar and Orissa was under the jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court.

On 9 February 1916, in exercise of the powers under Section 113 of the Government of India Act, 1915, the King of the United Kingdom issued letters of patent constituting the High Court of Patna. Odisha was placed under the jurisdiction of Patna High Court. Although, on 18 May 1916, Circuit Court of Patna High Court for Odisha held its first sitting at Cuttack.

On 1 April 1936 Odisha was made a separate province but no separate High Court was provided for it. The Government of India agreed to create a new High Court, and for that purpose the Government of India issued the Orissa High Court Order, 1948, under the Section 229(1) of the Government of India Act, 1935, on 30 April 1948. Finally, on 26 July 1948, Orissa High Court was formally inaugurated.

The seat of the court is Cuttack. The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 27.

In an innovative effort, Museum of Justice has been established at Quila Fort, Cuttack inside the historic compound of Barabati Quila (fort), Cuttack.^[1]

List of sitting judges in Orissa High Court (Seniority Wise)

	Judge	Date of appointment	Date of retirement
1	Justice Bidyut Ranjan Sarangi
2	Justice Arindam Sinha
3	Justice Debabrata Dash
4	Justice Sangam Kumar Sahoo
5	Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra
6	Justice Bibhu Prasad Routray
7	Justice Sanjeeb Kumar Panigrahi
8	Justice Savitri Ratho
9	Justice Mruganka Sekhar Sahoo
10	Justice Radha Krishna Pattanaik
11	Justice Sashikanta Mishra
12	Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra
13	Justice V. Narasingh
14	Justice Biraja Prasanna Satapathy
15	Justice Murahari Sri Raman
16	Justice Sanjay Kumar Mishra
17	Justice Gourishankar Satapathy
18	Justice Chittaranjan Dash
	Vacant

List of chief justices of Orissa High Court

	Chief Justice	Portrait	Term of office
1	Justice Bira Kishore Ray		26 July 1948	30 October 1951
2	Justice B. Jagannadha Das		31 October 1951	3 March 1953
3	Justice Lingaraj Panigrahi		4 March 1953	21 March 1956
4	Justice R. L. Narasimham		22 March 1956	27 December 1964
5	Justice Khaleel Ahmed		18 January 1965	5 April 1967
6	Justice Satya Bhusan Barman		6 April 1967	30 April 1969
7	Justice Gati Krushna Misra		1 May 1969	30 October 1975
8	Justice Siba Narain Sankar		1 November 1975	12 October 1977
9	Justice Sukanta Kishor Ray		13 October 1977	4 November 1980
10	Justice Ranganath Mishra		16 January 1981	14 March 1983
11	Justice Dambarudhar Pathak		11 August 1983	28 February 1986
12	Justice Hari Lal Agrawal		1 May 1986	31 July 1989
13	Justice B. L.Hansaria		22 February 1990	13 December 1993
14	Justice G. T. Nanavati		31 January 1994	27 September 1994
15	Justice V. A. Mohta		28 September 1994	25 April 1995
16	Jusitce S. N. Phukan		2 August 1996	27 January 1999
17	Justice Biswanath Agrawal		18 November 1999	18 October 2000
18	Justice N. Y. Hanumanthappa		17 February 2001	24 September 2001
19	Justice P. K. Balasubramanyan		5 December 2001	10 March 2003
20	Justice Sujit Barman Roy		9 April 2003	21 January 2007
21	Justice A. K. Ganguly		2 March 2007	18 May 2008
22	Justice B. S. Chauhan		16 July 2008	10 May 2009
23	Justice Bilal Nazki		14 November 2009	17 November 2009
24	Justice V. G. Gopala Gowda		25 March 2010	23 December 2012
25	Justice C. Nagappan		27 February 2013	18 September 2013
26	Justice A. K. Goel		12 October 2013	6 July 2014
27	Justice Amitava Roy		6 August 2014	26 February 2015
28	Justice D. H. Waghela		4 June 2015	14 February 2016
29	Justice Vineet Saran		26 February 2016	6 August 2018
30	Justice K. S. Jhaveri		12 August 2018	4 January 2020
31	Justice Mohammad Rafiq		27 April 2020	3 January 2021
32	Justice S. Muralidhar		4 January 2021	7 August 2023
33	Justice Subhasis Talapatra		8 August 2023	3 October 2023
34	Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh		7 February 2024	Incumbent

Judges who served as chief justices of the Supreme Court of India

• Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ranganath Misra (as 21st Chief Justice of India from 25 September 1990 - 24 November 1991)
• Hon'ble Mr. Justice G.B. Pattanaik (as 32nd Chief Justice of India from 8 November 2002 - 18 December 2002)
• Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dipak Misra (as 45th Chief Justice of India from 28 August 2017 - 2 October 2018)

External links

1. Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts
2. Judge strength in High Courts increased
3. Orissa High Court website
4. http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/from-list-of-6-sc-collegium-picks-orissa-chief-justice-for-elevation/

Notes and References

1. Web site: Museum of Justice thrown open to public in Cuttack . The New Indian Express . 17 October 2023.