PATNA, March 3 -- The Patna high court's working strength is set to reach the highest ever in the last few decades with nine names cleared for appointment as judges by the Supreme Court Collegium on Thursday. Against the sanctioned strength of 53, the Patna HC will have the working strength of 46 judges, which will be around 87%. It had a working strength of 38 when the recommendations were made, but one judge retired on February 28. Advocate General PK Shahi said that it was a good situation for the HC and it would help in fast disposal of cases by tackling the huge pendency. As per the data of National Judicial Data Grid, the backlog of cases had crossed 2.15 lakh in December, 2025, with a large number of cases over five years old. "The Patna HC has already been carrying out drive to tackle growing number of cases related to bail, as it had reached around 32,000 at one point of time. With higher working strength, it would further ease the pressure," he added. The Supreme Court Collegium had on Thursday approved the proposals for appointment of nine advocates as Patna HC judges. The advocates recommended for elevation as judges: Md Nadim Seraj, Ranjan Kumar Jha, Kumar Manish, Sanjeev Kumar, Girijish Kumar, Alok Kumar, Raj Kumar, Rana Vikram Singh and Vikash Kumar. The appointments will take effect after the Union Government processes the recommendations and issues the warrants of appointment. "If there are no objections, the appointments will be made in the coming weeks. Normally, the Collegium's recommendations are through," he added. In 2021, the strength of the HC had dropped to just 17 -- less than one third -- and the appointments picked up momentum with over 35 recommendations made by the HC collegium during the tenure of former Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, who is presently a judge of the Supreme Court. During his period, the working strength had reached 37, but there were subsequent transfers and retirement. Shahi said that there had been a couple of instances decades ago when the Patna HC's working strength was even higher, but in the last few decades the number kept falling before again picking up in the last few years....