Chief Minister & Governor Have Not Conveyed Their Views: SC Collegium Extends Tenure Of Nine Calcutta HC Judges

This decision diverged from the unanimous recommendation of the High Court Collegium on April 29, which had proposed these nine judges for permanent appointment, a suggestion also endorsed by the Central government. However, neither the Chief Minister nor the Governor of West Bengal provided their views on the High Court Collegium's recommendation.

In accordance with Para 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure, which stipulates that if comments from constitutional authorities are not received within the prescribed time-frame, it should be presumed that there are no additional contributions to the proposal, the Department of Justice forwarded the recommendation to the Minister of Law and Justice.

The Supreme Court Collegium sought the advice of judges knowledgeable about the Calcutta High Court's operations and thoroughly evaluated the performance and suitability of each of the nine judges.

After careful consideration of all factors, the Collegium opted to grant these judges a fresh one-year term instead of appointing them permanently.

The notification dated July 24, 2024 read, “In view of the above, the Collegium resolves to recommend that S/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, be appointed as Additional Judges of the High Court at Calcutta for a fresh term of one year with effect from 31 August 2024.”