Five judges were appointed at Calcutta High Court on Thursday, raising the total number to 35 against the sanctioned strength of 72.

Even after the appointment of the five, the posts of 37 judges will remain vacant at the court.

The new judges are Kesang Doma Bhutia, Rabindranath Samanta, Sugato Majumdar, Bivas Pattanayak and Ananda Kumar Mukherjee. They would be sworn in soon.

Pattanayak and Majumdar have been appointed as additional judges for two years from the date of their taking oath of office. Bhutia, Samanta and Mukherjee will retire on May 4, June 23 and August 4, 2022, respectively.

Pattanayak and Majumdar were advocates, while the other three were in the higher judicial services.

Filling the vacancies of judges has been a long-pending demand of high court lawyers. The court has never had its full strength of judges. In 2017, the court had its highest-ever strength of 48 judges.

According to estimates, around 3.52 lakh cases are lying pending in the high court which has circuit benches in the Andamans and at Jalpaiguri. Four judges are sent to the circuit benches by rotation.