Union govt holding up appointments of Calcutta HC judges
The Union government has been sitting on the names of 16 candidates for elevation as judges of Calcutta High Court, and its partiality against Bengal is obvious from the fact that since September, 73 candidates have been approved for appointment as judges to various high courts.
The Calcutta High Court is running on just half the sanctioned strength of judges—36 against 72. Yet the Modi government has been sitting on the names of 16 judges approved for elevation by the Supreme Court Collegium.
Of the 16, eight were recommended as far back as February and the remaining since September 1, with some of the names reiterated by the collegium despite multiple objections by the Centre.
Technically, after a certain number of rejections, the Union government has no option but to accept the names and pass on the files to the president of the country for the final seal of approval.
That the Calcutta High Court is being meted out unfair treatment is obvious from the fact that since September, the Union government has approved 73 candidates for appointment as judges to the various high courts.
Of course, a look at some of the names makes at least some of the reasons obvious enough.
Senior advocate Amitesh Banerjee is the son of the former Supreme Court judge, UC Banerjee, who headed the one-man commission that in 2006 ruled out any conspiracy behind the 2002 Sabarmati Express fire that killed 59 kar sevaks. The collegium has over-ruled the government’s objections several times and reiterated his name on September 1.
Another candidate is Sakya Sen, son of former Allahabad High Court chief justice and head of the commission set up by the Bengal government to investigate the Saradha Chit Fund scam, Shyamal Sen. On October 8, the collegium reiterated his candidature, rejecting for the third time the Centre’s objections.
Other names reiterated on September 1 include advocates Jaytosh Majumdar, Raja Basu Chowdhury and Lapita Banerji. All three and Amitesh Banerjee had been first recommended in July 2019.
There are eight other candidates—three each for Jammu and Kashmir High Court and Allahabad High Court, and two for Karnataka High Court—whose names have also been reiterated by the Supreme Court Collegium but are yet to be appointed.
Even a September 16 recommendation for the re-transfer of Justice Joymalya Bagchi to Calcutta High Court (who had been transferred to Andhra Pradesh High Court last December 31) has not yet been approved.
All that Calcutta High Court has witnessed is a couple of transfers (including the appointment of Justice Prakash Shrivastava of Madhya Pradesh High Court as chief justice of Calcutta High Court) and an additional judge being made permanent.
Interestingly, that additional judge is Justice Kausik Chanda, who is known to be close to the state BJP and has been photographed at several public functions of the party, including with the former state president Dilip Ghosh.
Calcutta High Court is among the largest handler of cases in India and that is also borne out by the fact that it is the country’s fourth-largest high court, with an allotted strength of 72 judges. Therefore, the 50 per cent vacancy is severely affecting the pace of work.
It is instructive to state here that on August 9, citing the huge vacancies of judges across the high courts, the Supreme Court (a bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul) had come down heavily on the Union government for bringing the “third pillar of democracy to a standstill” by not appointing judges and warned that the government’s “administrative system” will also come to a standstill if this attitude continues.
