Orissa High Court

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

Orissa High Court
Established	26 July 1948
Location	Cuttack, Orissa
Coordinates	20.4650°N 85.8589°E / 20.4650; 85.8589
Composition method	Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state
Authorized by	Constitution of India
Appeals to	Supreme Court of India
Judge term length	Mandatory retirement at 62 years of age
Number of positions	27 (20 Permanent + 7 Additional)
Website	www.orissahighcourt.nic.in
Chief Justice
Currently	Mohammad Rafiq
Since	27 April 2020

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 in different languages and having different traditions. Administrative exigencies required separation of such areas which originally did not from part of Bengal. So, new province of Bihar and Orissa was formed on 22 March 1912. However, the said new province of Bihar and Odisha was under the jurisdiction of 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 England issued letters of patent constituting 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 Odisha 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, Odisha High Court was formally inaugurated.

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

The Chief Justice

Justice Mohammad Rafiq is the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court since 27 April 2020.

Former Chief Justices

#	Chief Justice	Term
1	Bira Kishore Ray	26 July 1948 – 30 October 1951
2	B. Jagannadha Das	31 October 1951 – 3 March 1953
3	Lingaraj Panigrahi	4 March 1953 – 21 March 1956
4	R. Laxman Narasimham	22 March 1956 – 27 December 1964
5	Khaleel Ahmed	18 January 1965 – 5 April 1967
6	Satya Bhusan Burman	6 April 1967 – 30 April 1969
7	Gati Krushna Misra	1 May 1969 – 30 October 1975
8	Siba Narayan Shankar	1 November 1975 – 12 October 1977
9	Sukanta Kishor Ray	13 October 1977 – 4 November 1980
10	Ranganath Mishra	16 January 1981 – 14 March 1983
11	Dambarudhar Pathak	11 August 1983 – 28 February 1986
12	Harilal Agrawal	1 May 1986 – 31 July 1989
13	Banwarilal Hansaria	22 February 1990 – 13 December 1993
14	Girish Thakurlal Nanavati	31 January 1994 – 27 September 1994
15	Vallabhdas Aidan Mohta	28 September 1994 – 25 April 1995
16	Sailendu Nath Phukan	2 August 1996 – 27 January 1999
17	Biswanath Agrawal	18 November 1999 – 18 October 2000
18	N.Y. Hanumanthapa	17 February 2001 – 24 September 2001
19	P. K. Balasubramanyan	5 December 2001 – 10 March 2003
20	Sujit Barman Roy	9 April 2003 – 27 January 2007
21	A.K. Ganguly	2 March 2007 – 18 May 2008
22	Balbir Singh Chauhan	16 July 2008 – 10 May 2009
23	Bilal Nazki	14 November 2009 – 17 November 2009
24	V. Gopala Gowda	25 March 2010 – 23 December 2012
25	C. Nagappan	27 February 2013 – 18 September 2013
26	Adarsh Kumar Goel	12 October 2013 - 06 July 2014
27	Amitava Roy	06 August 2014 – 26 February 2015
28	Dhirendra Hiralal Waghela	04 June 2015 - 14 February 2016
29	Vineet Saran	26 February 2016 - 06 August 2018
30	Kalpesh Satyendra Jhaveri	12 August 2018 - 4 January 2020
acting	Sanju Panda (acting)	5 January 2020 - 26 April 2020
31	Mohammad Rafiq	27 April 2020 - 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 08 November 2002 - 18 December 2002)
• Hon'ble Mr. Justice Dipak Misra (as 45th Chief Justice of India from 28 August 2017 - 02 October 2018)

References

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/