The High Court Division of the Supreme Court is now facing a shortage of judges after five of its judges have been elevated to the Appellate Division including one as chief justice.

President Mohammad Shahabuddin on August 10 appointed Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, who was the senior most judge of the HC Division, as the 25th chief justice of Bangladesh as per the constitution.

Two days later, on August 12, the president elevated four judges from the HC Division to the Appellate Division. The four elevated judges are Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury, Justice Syed Md Ziaul Karim, Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice SM Emdadul Hoque.

The appointments were made after the then chief justice Obaidul Hassan and five other judges of the Appellate Division stepped down on the same day amid student protests for their resignation.

The number of HC judges now stands at 78 after the five judges were elevated to the Appellate Division. The number of HC judges was 100 in June 2012.

Among the total 78 HC judges, three have been excluded from judicial functions for five years, as an inquiry centring them is pending.

Due to the scarcity of judges, the backlog of cases with the HC keeps piling up, thereby causing immeasurable sufferings to the litigants, according to legal experts.

Each of them is burdened with more than 7,250 cases on average as about 5.43 lakh cases are pending with this court.

Meanwhile, the lower court judges are also burdened with a huge number of cases as there are just above 1,900 judges to deal with more than 37 lakh cases pending with the courts across the country, SC sources said.

Contacted, Attorney General Md Asaduzzaman told The Daily Star on August 30 that some new HC judges should be appointed in order to resolve the crisis of judges and to increase the rate of case disposal.

He, however, said he has no knowledge whether any process has been initiated for appointment of new HC judges.

SC Registrar General Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan said so far as he knew, no process has been initiated to appoint new judges for the HC.

Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Md Ruhul Quddus Kazal said some new HC judges need to be appointed to dispose of the pending cases and to clear the burden of cases.

Law Adviser Asif Nazrul could not be reached for his comments.