Hriday Shah
The Supreme Court Collegium, led by CJI DY Chandrachud and compromising Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice BR Gavai, recommended in their resolution, the extension of tenure of nine Additional Judges of the Calcutta High Court by one year, namely, 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.
The resolution stated that the Collegium of the Calcutta High Court, on the 29th of April 2024, recommended the Additional Judges to be appointed as Permanent Judges. However, the Chief Minster and Governor of West Bengal did not convey any views on this recommendation.
It was stated that the Department of Justice forwarded the aforementioned recommendation, citing Paragraph 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure, which states that the Governor and the Chief Minister should be presumed to have nothing further to contribute to the proposal and to proceed accordingly if the State’s constitutional authorities’ comments are not received within the allotted time frame.
The Collegium consulted judges who are familiar with the workings of the Calcutta High Court to determine the suitability of the Additional Judges for appointment as Permanent Judges. The judgments of the aforementioned Additional Judges were evaluated by the Supreme Court Collegium.
After examining and assessing the material on record to determine the merit and suitability of the Additional Judges for their appointment as Permanent Judges, the Collegium issued an order designating the aforementioned judges as Additional Judges for a new term of one year, beginning on August 31, 2024.