Judiciary Watch: Calcutta High Court functioning with 57 percent vacancy

In this edition of Judiciary Watch, we take a look at Calcutta High Court, where only one judge has been appointed in the last one year despite a vacancy position of 57 percent.

The Calcutta High Court, India’s oldest High Court is currently functioning with less half of its sanctioned strength.

The sanctioned strength of Calcutta High Court is 72 judges - 54 permanent judges and 18 additional judges.

However, as on July 1, 2021 the High Court is currently functioning with only 31 judges, 29 of them permanent and 2 additional.

Thus, it has a vacancy position of 41 judges, a whopping 56.9 percent vacancy.

The last appointment to the Calcutta High Court was on December 31, 2020 when the Central government had transferred Justice Rajesh Bindal from Jammu & Kashmir High Court to Calcutta High Court.

However, the last new appointment (discounting transfer from another High Court) was in May 2020 when Justice Aniruddha Roy was appointed additional judge.

The last recommendation made by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment of judges to Calcutta High Court was on February 4, 2021 when names of seven judicial officers were recommended.

None of the names have been cleared yet for appointment.

Shraddha contributed to this story.