Cuttack: Orissa High Court observed its 71st foundation day on Thursday. It was observed by garlanding the statue of its first Chief Justice, Bira Kishore Ray, whose death anniversary also falls on the same day.

The circuit court of Patna High Court had its first sitting in Cuttack on May 18, 1916. Madhu Sudan Das, then the president of Cuttack Bar Association, while welcoming it expressed hope that the circuit court would become a permanent bench for Odisha in the near future.

However, a separate high court eluded Odisha when it was made a province on April 1, 1936. As a result, a separate high court was demanded by the High Court Bar Association in Cuttack by passing a resolution on July 26, 1938.

"It was only on April 30, 1948, that the Union government first declared a court for the Odisha province and H.J. Kania, the then Chief Justice of the Federal Court of India, inaugurated Orissa High Court on July 26, 1948," said senior advocate Guru Prasad Mohanty, who has completed 60 years of practice at the high court.

"Justice Bira Kishore Ray, the first advocate-general of the new Odisha province, was also the first Chief Justice of Orissa High Court from July 26, 1948. He died on July 26, a decade later, on the tenth foundation day of Odisha High Court in 1958," said Bijay Kumar Ragada, secretary of the Justice B.K. Ray memorial committee.

Chief Justice Vineet Saran, other judges and advocate-general Surya Prasad Mishra garlanded Justice Ray's statue on the court premises.

Established with four judges, Orissa High Court now has 14 judges, including the Chief Justice, against a sanctioned strength of 22 judges.