KOLKATA: The
Supreme Court collegium on Monday recommended the name of advocates
Biswajit Basu,
Amrita Sinha, Sutanu Kumar Patra, Abhijit Gangopadhyay, and Jay Sengupta to be appointed as Calcutta High Court judges. The HC, which has been witnessing cease-work by lawyers for over a month over judges’ appointment, now has 33 judges against a sanctioned strength of 72.
The collegium resolution, available on the Supreme Court website, indicated that on May 4, 2017, then acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta HC, in consultation with her two senior-most colleagues, had recommended seven names from the Bar to be elevated as judges.
The collegium had consulted their colleague “conversant with the affairs of the Calcutta High Court” and also considered the views of the state chief minister, forwarded by the state governor, the Intelligence Bureau reports, age, income, reported and unreported judgments as well as the observations made by the
Union justice department.
The
SC collegium comprised CJI Dipak Misra, Justice J Chelameswar and Justice Ranjan Gogoi.
The collegium resolution noted they also interacted with all the nominees in person. Among the seven recommendations, the collegium mentioned that for one, it “ needs further information to assess his suitability. The Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta HC may be requested accordingly”. On the other recommendation, it said, “The proposal for his elevation is deferred for the present.”
