HP High Court Judge retires

Shimla, Apr 10 (UNI) Justice Kailash Sood today attained superannuation after six years of service with Himachal Pradesh High Court, reducing the strength of the judges to three, official sources said.

Mr Sood entered the state judicial services in 1970 and served in different posts before being appointed Additional judge of the Court in March, 2000 and permanent judge in August 2004.

The sources said the strength of the High Court judges has come down to three with his retirement, against a strength of nine judges.

Chief Justice V K Gupta and Justices Deepak Gupta and Surjeet Singh, besides several members of the state bar council were present on the occasion.

The vacancies are due to Justice V K Jhanjhi's retirement last month, Justice V M Jain's death and the elevation of Justice L S Panta to the Supreme Court in February, while two vacancies have been there for the last one year.

The High Court has a backlog of an estimated 25,000 cases, sources added.

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