Against a sanctioned strength of 72 judges, the High Court is currently functioning with 39, at a vacancy percentage of 46.
The vacancies are for 23 permanent and 10 additional judges.
The Central government had last notified the appointment of judges to the Calcutta High Court in November last year.
The newly appointed judges at the time had included two judicial officers – Bibhas Ranjan De and Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, and Advocate Krishna Rao.
The Supreme Court Collegium in September 2021 had recommended the appointment of four judicial officers and two advocates – including the new appointees – for elevation as judges of the Calcutta High Court. In the same meeting, it had also reiterated the names of four advocates for appointment as judges.
However, out of these 10 recommendations, only 3 appointments had been approved by the Central government in its November notification.
The 7 recommendations yet to be approved by the government are:
1) Judicial officer Shampa Dutt (Paul)
2) Judicial officer Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury
3) Advocate Koyeli Bhattacharyya
4) Advocate Jaytosh Majumdar
5) Advocate Amitesh Banerjee
6) Advocate Raja Basu Chowdhury
7) Advocate Lapita Banerji
Source: Barandbench
