SC Collegium recommends year-long tenure extension of 9 additional judges of Calcutta High Court

On July 24, the Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, had decided not to make them permanent at this stage.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended for extension of the term of nine additional judges of the Calcutta High Court for one year, considering several factors including that the Chief Minister and the Governor did not convey their views to the High Court's approval for making them permanent.

On July 24, the Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai, decided not to make them permanent at this stage.

On 29 April 2024, the High Court's Collegium unanimously recommended those Additional Judges but the Chief Minister and the Governor of West Bengal did not convey their views on the recommendation.

The SC Collegium consulted other judges conversant with the affairs of the High Court at Calcutta, in order to ascertain the suitability of the additional judges for being appointed as permanent judges.

It scrutinised and evaluated the material placed on record.

A committee of two judges of the apex court constituted by the CJI also assessed the judgments of the additional judges.

“The Collegium resolves to recommend that Justices Biswaroop Chowdhury, Partha Sarathi Sen, Prasenjit Biswas, Uday Kumar, Ajay Kumar Gupta, Supratim Bhattacharya, Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, Apurba Sinha Ray, and Md Shabbar Rashidi, Additional Judges, be appointed as Additional Judges of the High Court at Calcutta for a fresh term of one year with effect from August 31, 2024," the resolution stated.

The Collegium also noted that the Department of Justice has forwarded the recommendations by invoking Para 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP).

The MoP stated 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.