Cuttack, July 26: Orissa High Court observed its 69th foundation day today.

It observed the day by garlanding the statue of its first Chief Justice Bira Kishore Ray, whose death anniversary coincided with the day.

Chief Justice Vineet Saran, other judges, state bar council chairman M.R. Mohapatra garlanded Justice Ray's statue on the court premises.

When the circuit court of Patna High Court had its first sitting in Cuttack on May 18, 1916, Madhusudan Das, the then president of the Cuttack Bar Association, had expressed the hope that the circuit court would become a permanent bench for Odisha in the near future. But Odisha was not given a separate high court when it was made a province on April 1, 1936.

The High Court Bar Association in Cuttack demanded a separate one by passing a resolution on July 26, 1938.

"On April 30, 1948, the Centre first declared a court for the province of Odisha. It was supposed to start functioning from July 5, but following an Orissa High Court (Amendment) Order, the date was changed to July 26, 1948. H.J. Kania, the then Chief Justice of the Federal Court of India, inaugurated the court on July 26, 1948," said advocate Durga Charan Mohanty, who has completed 50 years of practice in the high court.

"Justice Bira Kishore Ray, the first advocate-general of the new Odisha province and the first Odia to become a judge of the High Court of Patna, became the first Chief Justice of Orissa High Court on July 26, 1948. He died on July 26, 1958," said Manoranjan Mohanty, lawyer and advisor to the Justice B. K. Ray memorial committee.

Established with four judges, Orissa High Court now has 19 judges, including the Chief Justice against a sanctioned strength of 22. The functioning of the court proceedings was shifted to a new seven-storey high court building adjacent to the old one on January 2, 2014.