HC to get three additional judges

kolkata: The Central Government on Tuesday notified the appointment of three additional judges to the Calcutta High Court.

According to a notification on the website of the Department of Law and Justice, the newly appointed judges include two judicial officers - Bibhas Ranjan De and Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, and Advocate Krishna Rao.

"In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 224 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint S/Shri (i) Krishna Rao, (ii) Bibhas Ranjan De

and (iii) Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee, to be Additional Judges of Calcutta High Court, in

that order of seniority, for a period of 2 years with

effect from the date they

assume their charge of their respective offices," read the notification.

At present, the High Court is functioning at half its strength (with 36 vacancies as against 72 sanctioned posts). Following the appointment of the three new judges, the number of vacancies will reduce to 33.

Recently, the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended the appointment of four judicial officers and two advocates - including the new appointees - for elevation as judges of the Calcutta High Court.

Out of these 10 recommendations, only the three appointments have presently been notified by the Central government. The seven recommendations yet to be approved by the government are

Judicial officer Shampa Dutt (Paul), Judicial officer

Siddhartha Roy Chowdhury, Advocate Koyeli Bhattacharyya, Advocate Jaytosh Majumdar, Advocate Amitesh Banerjee, Advocate Raja Basu Chowdhury andAdvocate Lapita Banerji.