Sanctioned strength of judges: 50 Present strength: 35 Pending cases in 2000: 3.10 lakh Pending cases till 2004: 2.52 lakh Number of lawyers: 8,000 (in high court)

For the first time in several years, Calcutta High Court is headed for a crisis.

Thanks to a shortage of judges, the number of pending lawsuits, brought down by around 60,000 in the past three years, will shoot up again.

As of now, the court has 35 judges, against the sanctioned strength of 50. (After a gap of seven years, as many as 15 posts of judges are lying vacant.) Two of them sit in the Andaman court by rotation. So, the effective strength is only 33.

In the past month, four judges have been transferred and two have retired, officials said. And the number will further dwindle in the next six months, as three more judges are retiring.

?The high court never had its full strength of judges ever since it had been allotted 50 posts by the Supreme Court,? said Sanatan Mukhopadhaya, chairman of the West Bengal Bar Council.

?The number of pending cases, which had been cut remarkably in the past three years, will go up again if new judges are not appointed immediately,? he added.

In the past month, four senior judges ? including acting Chief Justice A.N. Roy ? have been transferred to other high courts. Justice Roy has been appointed chief justice of Allahabad High Court and his immediate junior, Justice M.H.S. Ansari, to Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Justice Barin Ghosh and Justice Amitava Lala have been transferred to the high courts in Patna and Allahabad, respectively.

Those who retired from service during the period were Justice Arunava Barua and Justice Gora Chand De.

?Justice Altamas Kabir, now acting chief justice, will be elevated to the post of chief justice of another high court in a couple of months. Moreover, at least three more judges will retire in the next six months,? said Sardar Amjad Ali, president of the the High Court Bar Association.

Lawyers fear an alarming rise in the number of pending cases if the authorities fail to fill up the vacancies.

?In 2000, the number of pending cases had crossed three lakh. The number has been reduced to 2.52 lakh. This became possible because the court had the maximum number of judges during this period,? said Uttam Majumdar, former secretary of the bar association.

The post of the chief justice has been lying vacant since Justice A.K. Mathur was transferred about a year ago.

?The court cannot function smoothly unless there is a permanent chief justice. But the authorities, even despite pleas by lawyers, are not appointing a permanent chief,? alleged Ali.