SC collegium recommends one-year extension of 9 judges' term in Calcutta HC

The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday, 24 July recommended to the Centre that the term of nine additional judges of the Calcutta High Court be extended by one year.

Besides the CJI, Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai are part of the collegium which decide the names for high court judgeship.

The collegium did not recommend the names of the judges for appointment as permanent judges of the high court at this stage.

"The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the names of Shri 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, Additional Judges of the High Court at Calcutta, for appointment as Additional Judges for a fresh term of one year," the apex court said in its resolution.

The resolution said the high court collegium, on 29 April, had unanimously recommended the names of nine additional judges for appointment as permanent Judges.

"The Chief Minister and the Governor of the State of West Bengal have not conveyed their views on the above recommendation.

"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 by the Minister of Law and Justice that the Governor and the Chief Minister have nothing to add to the proposal and proceed accordingly," it said .

The apex court collegium said that in order to ascertain the suitability of the additional judges for being appointed as permanent Judges, it consulted SC judges conversant with the affairs of the Calcutta High Court.

After considering the suitability and other aspects, the collegium took a view that the additional judges can be appointed for a fresh term of one year with effect from 31 August.