The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended that five out of seven advocates unanimously recommended by the then three senior most judges of the Calcutta High Court be elevated as judges of the High Court.

The High Court had recommended the names of advocates Biswajit Basu, Amrita Sinha, Dr. Sutanu Kumar Patra, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, Tirthankar Ghosh, Jay Sengupta, and Hiranmay Bhattacharyya on May, 4, 2017.

The Collegium resolution states that all seven were invited for an interaction. It was based on this interaction and other relevant criteria such as the views of the Chief Minster, Intelligence Bureau reports, age, income and reported/unreported judgments, that five of the seven were found suitable.

The Collegium resolved to recommend that Biswajit Basu, Amrita Sinha, Dr. Sutanu Kumar Patra, Abhijit Gangopadhyay and Jay Sengupta be appointed as judges of the Calcutta High Court.

While the proposal to elevate Hiranmay Bhattacharya has been deferred, the resolution states that they need further information to assess the suitability of Tirthankar Ghosh for elevation as a judge.

The Collegium also recorded that the income of some of the recommendees was below the prescribed limit, but clarified that the revised income criterion was made know to high courts, only after the seven names were recommended.

Should the names receive Presidential assent, the High Court will have 35 judges against a sanctioned strength of 72.

Recently, advocates of the Calcutta High Court undertook a week-long strike in protest of the burgeoning vacancies at the High Court. The protest resulted in a small victory for the lawyers, as three judges were appointed to the High Court.

Read the resolution