“Many vacancies in Calcutta HC, whose fault is that”, Senior Advocate Kalyan Bandopadhyay asks SC

After the Supreme Court had disposed of the PIL filed by one Anil Kabotra relating to vacancies in High Courts and judicial appointments, the issue had not come up on the judicial side in Supreme Court..However, the hearing in the suo moto case on evolving a central selection mechanism for subordinate judiciary witnessed some remarkable submissions by lawyers representing Calcutta High Court today as the issue of vacancies in High Courts came to fore yet again in the court of Chief Justice of India..The submissions were made by Senior Advocate and Member of Parliament, Kalyan Bandopadhyay after Amicus Curiae Arvind Datar submitted a concept note to the Supreme Court regarding evolving a Central Selection Mechanism..Bandopadhyay submitted that the proposal to have a Central mechanism could be an intrusion into the autonomy of State and could violate the federal structure..He also asked the Court why the same fervour was not being shown to fill up vacancies in Calcutta High Court..“Your Lordships are evolving this idea because vacancies are not being filled up. But in Calcutta High Court there are many vacancies. Whose fault is that? If I say something I could he hauled up for contempt”, said Bandopadhyay in a lighter vein..The Bench also joined Bandopadhyay with CJI Khehar jokingly saying that Bandopadhyay is speaking politics..On a serious note, CJI Khehar said that the object of the whole exercise is to make judiciary efficient..“We are trying to do a service to the nation. No progress can be made unless judiciary is efficient. No foreign investor will invest here is he knows he will be stuck in a court in this country for 15 years”, he said..Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta, who was representing the Calcutta High Court also stated that the exercise could run contrary to a judgment of the Supreme Court itself..As the hearing drew to a close, Bandopadhyay proceeded to request the Court once again to speed up the appointments to Calcutta High Court..“Please make appointments your lordship”, he said..Interestingly, it is not the Bar alone, which has lamented at the vacancies in Calcutta High Court..The Calcutta High Court itself had made some very scathing observations regarding the failure of the Centre in appointing judges to the High Court..The observations were made by a bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Debi Prosad Dey in an anticipatory bail application of a Bengali Film Actor, Bikram Chatterjee..The actor’s bail application could not be listed in time by the court as a result of which he was arrested by the police rendering his plea infructuous..The Court, chose the occasion to allude to the problem of shortage of judges by referring it as a “very major problem that the oldest High Court of the country is encountering.”.Setting out the data regarding vacancies in Calcutta High Court, the Court had said,.“The sanctioned strength of Judges in this Court is 72 (seventy-two). Till a couple of years back, the sanctioned strength was 58 (fiftyeight). Today, this Court has a functional strength of 34 (thirty-four) Judges only. The present functional strength is, therefore, a little less than 50% of the sanctioned strength. During the first six months of this year, 4 (four) Judges have already retired. In course of the next month 3 (three) Judges and by November 8, 2017, another 4 (four) Judges including the Hon’ble the Acting Chief Justice would lay down office. In February next, 3 (three) more Judges would retire. If no Judge is appointed by February 11, 2018, the vacancy would rise to nearly 66%.”.Berating the political executive for its apathy in filling up vacancies to judiciary and its step-motherly attitude towards courts and judiciary, the Court had urged the Executive to act and had asked the Registrar General of the High Court to ensure that the concerns expressed in the order reaches the Union Law Minister..It was later reported by The New Indian Express that the Union Law Ministry has acted on files for appointment of five new judges to Calcutta High Court.