The Central government has notified the appointment of three additional judges to the Calcutta High Court.

The newly appointed judges include two judicial officers - Bibhas Ranjan De and Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, and Advocate Krishna Rao.

A notification to this effect published on the website of the Department of Law and Justice reads:

"In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 224 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint S/Shri (i) Krishna Rao, (ii) Bibhas Ranjan De and (iii) Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, to be Additional Judges of Calcutta High Court, in that order of seniority, for a period of 2 years with effect from the date they assume their charge of their respective offices."

The High Court is currently functioning at half its strength, with 36 vacancies as against 72 sanctioned posts. After the appointment of the 3 new judges, the number of vacancies will reduce to 33.

The Supreme Court Collegium recently 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 have presently been notified by the Central government.

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

[Read Notification]