Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 26 (IANS): Justice Nitin Madhukar Jamdar was sworn in as the Chief Justice of Kerala High Court at Raj Bhawan here on Thursday.

Governor Arif Mohammed Khan administered the oath of office to Justice Jamdar in the presence of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, his cabinet colleagues, Leader of Opposition V. D. Satheesan and high-ranking officials.

Justice Jamdar was appointed as a judge of the Bombay High Court on January 23, 2012.

Passionate about photography, Jamdar is known for computerising the Bombay High Court and is considered an expert in the Constitution.

In July, the Supreme Court Collegium cleared his name for the post, and on September 21, the Union government gave the nod for his appointment.

The Kerala High Court has a sanctioned strength of 35 permanent judges including the Chief Justice and 12 judges, but at the moment, there are 29 permanent and 10 additional judges.

Justice Jamdar's immediate concern will be the calls made by President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi early this month at the National Conference of the District Judiciary about the huge pendency of cases.

President Murmu at the meeting had pointed out that around 62,000 cases were pending in the various High Courts in the country, some of which are more than 30 years old.

In May, Kerala High Court's Justice Devan Ramachandran, who heads the Arrears Committee, asked the Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) for suggestions to tackle the pendency of cases.

The Judge has written to the KHCAA to come up with their recommendations and suggestions on how best the pendency of cases in the High Court can be reduced and has also asked them to list out the details of infructuous cases so these can be disposed of on a particular day.

So, Justice Jamdar will have a task to see how best he can intervene to bring down the pendency.