The Supreme Court Collegium recommended on Wednesday that nine additional judges of the Calcutta High Court be granted a fresh one-year term.

The judges, Justices Biswaroop Chowdhury, Partha Sarathi Sen, Prasenjit Biswas, Uday Kumar, Ajay Kumar Gupta, Supratim Bhattacharya, Partha Sarathi Chatterjee, Apurba Sinha Ray, and Md Shabbar Rashidi, are to be reappointed for a term starting from August 31, 2024.

Despite the High Court Collegium's unanimous recommendation on April 29 to make the nine judges permanent and the Central government's concurrence, the Supreme Court Collegium decided to grant them a fresh one-year term.

The Chief Minister and the Governor of West Bengal did not convey their views on the High Court Collegium's recommendation. Consequently, the Department of Justice of the Central government, invoking Para 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure, forwarded the recommendation. This provision assumes that if the comments from the Constitutional authorities in the State are not received within the prescribed timeframe, the Minister of Law and Justice should proceed, presuming that the Governor and the Chief Minister have nothing to add.

The Supreme Court Collegium then consulted judges of the apex court familiar with the affairs of the Calcutta High Court and assessed the judgments of the nine judges for merit and suitability.

Taking all of the above into account, the Supreme Court Collegium decided to grant a fresh one-year term to the nine judges instead of making them permanent.