Calcutta High Court Welcome 8 New Additional Judges

Calcutta High Court Welcome 8 New Additional Judges as Centre Clears Appointments

In a significant development for the judiciary in West Bengal, the Central Government has given its formal approval to appoint nine advocates as Additional Judges of the Calcutta High Court. The clearance comes several months after the Supreme Court Collegium had recommended their names, and it marks another step toward easing the persistent judge shortage at one of India's oldest High Courts.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal shared the news publicly, confirming that the government had signed off on the notification. With this move, the Calcutta High Court is set to gain much-needed judicial strength at a time when it continues to grapple with a heavy backlog of pending cases.

Who Are the New Additional Judges?

The advocates cleared for elevation to the bench are a mix of practitioners with strong standing at the Calcutta High Court. According to the notification, the following individuals have been appointed as Additional Judges:

•       Aryak Dutt

•       Atarup Banerjee

•       Sandip Kumar De

•       Partha Pratim Roy

•       Sudip Deb

•       Anuj Singh

•       Arjun Ray Mukherjee

•       Rishad Medora

Together, these appointees are expected to strengthen the High Court's ability to handle its caseload more efficiently, particularly given how thin the current bench strength has become relative to the court's sanctioned capacity.

How the Recommendation Came About

The process behind this appointment traces back to earlier this year, when the Supreme Court Collegium — led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant — met over two days in May 2026 to finalise its recommendations for the Calcutta High Court. After reviewing the credentials of the shortlisted advocates, the Collegium gave its approval for their elevation to the bench, setting the wheels in motion for the Centre's eventual notification.

Under India's judicial appointment framework, a Collegium recommendation is only the first step. The Centre must still process and formally notify the appointments before a nominee can be sworn in as a judge, which is precisely what happened in this instance after a gap of a few months between the recommendation and the official notification.

Why the Calcutta High Court Badly Needed More Judges

The numbers tell their own story. The Calcutta High Court has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges — 54 permanent and 18 additional. Yet, as of the start of May 2026, it was functioning with only 42 judges in place, leaving a staggering 30 positions vacant.

Such a wide gap between sanctioned and working strength inevitably translates into slower case disposal, longer waiting periods for litigants, and mounting pressure on the judges already serving. Every fresh appointment, therefore, is a welcome relief for a court that has long been stretched thin.

Not the First Round of Appointments This Year

This isn't the only batch of appointments the Calcutta High Court has seen recently. Back in March 2025, the Centre had cleared advocates Smita Das De, Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, and Om Narayan Rai as Additional Judges. The latest notification builds on that trend, reflecting a continued, if gradual, effort to fill the vacancies plaguing the High Court.

What This Means Going Forward

With nine new Additional Judges set to join, the Calcutta High Court should see some improvement in its capacity to hear and dispose of cases, though the working strength will still remain well short of the sanctioned 72. Legal observers will be watching closely to see how soon the remaining vacancies are addressed, and whether the pace of appointments across India's High Courts picks up in the months ahead.

For now, though, this notification is a positive signal — one that reduces, even if only partially, the judge-to-case ratio strain that litigants and lawyers in West Bengal have been dealing with for years.