The Centre has notified the appointment of nine advocates as Additional Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, including Haryana Advocate-General Pravindra Singh Chauhan.The move comes at a time when the common High Court for Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh is functioning with only 55 judges against a sanctioned strength of 8top5 and has 4,23,312 cases pending before it.The appointments were announced by Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal on Thursday.The nine advocates appointed as Additional Judges are Monica Chhibber Sharma, Harmeet Singh Deol, Pravindra Singh Chauhan, Rajesh Gaur, Puja Chopra, Jattvibeish Bindlish, Minderjeet Yadav, Divya Sharma and Ravinder Malik.The appointments have been made by the President in exercise of the powers conferred by the Constitution after consultation with the Chief Justice of India.In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, after consultation with Chief Justice of India, the President is pleased to appoint the following Advocates as Additional Judges in the Punjab and Haryana High Court: pic.twitter.com/lDq5TDcNQU— Arjun Ram Meghwal (@arjunrammeghwal) August 20, 2026The appointments assume significance against the backdrop of the considerable gap between the sanctioned and working strength of the High Court. With 55 judges presently working against the sanctioned strength of 85, the High Court has 30 positions short of its sanctioned strength.The oath will be administered to the newly appointed judges by Acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Justice Ashwani Kumar Mishra.