Supreme Court Collegium Recommends One-Year Extension For Nine Additional Judges Of Calcutta High Court

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended an extension of tenure by one year for nine additional judges of the Calcutta High Court.

The Collegium comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and BR Gavai has recommended the names of the following additional judges for extension of tenure:

Justices (i) Biswaroop Chowdhury, (ii) Partha Sarathi Sen, (iii) Prasenjit Biswas, (iv) Uday Kumar, (v) Ajay Kumar Gupta, (vi) Supratim Bhattacharya, (vii) Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, (viii) Apurba Sinha Ray, and (ix) Md. Shabbar Rashidi.

The resolution passed by the SC Collegium states that on 29 April 2024, the Collegium of the High Court at Calcutta unanimously recommended the Additional Judges for appointment as permanent Judges. However, the Chief Minister and the Governor of the State of West Bengal had not conveyed their views on the above recommendation.

It was stated that the Department of Justice has forwarded the above recommendation by invoking Para 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure which provides that if the comments of the Constitutional authorities in the State are not received within the prescribed time frame, it should be presumed that the Governor and the Chief Minister have nothing to add to the proposal and to proceed accordingly.

It added that in order to ascertain the suitability of the Additional Judges for being appointed as permanent Judges, the Collegium had consulted Supreme Court judges who were conversant with the affairs of the Calcutta High Court

A Committee of two Judges of the Supreme Court constituted by the Chief Justice of India in terms of the Resolution dated 26 October 2017 of the Supreme Court Collegium had assessed the judgments of the above Additional Judges, it was stated.

It further added that with a view to assess the merit and suitability of the Additional Judges for their appointment as permanent Judges, the Collegium scrutinized and evaluated the material placed on record.

Accordingly, having considered all aspects, the collegium ordered that the afore-named Additional judges be appointed as additional judges for a fresh term of one year with effect from 31st August 2024.

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