In Kolkata, pregnant nurse ‘kills self’, husband held Kolkata man held for ‘raping’ minor for over a year after promising break in films Bengal civic polls: Trinamool sweeps all seven bodies, BJP emerges as main challenger With seven Calcutta High Court judges due to retire over the next few months, national president of the All India Trinamool Youth Congress and MP Abhishek Banerjee, in a recent Facebook post, accused the Centre of “stepmotherly treatment’’ towards the court by not appointing new judges. The Calcutta High Court is presently functioning at just less than 50 per cent of its sanctioned strength of judges, leading to a huge backlog of legal and criminal cases. In his post, Banerjee says he will be raising the issue in the next session of Parliament. “While the country is rejoicing (over) the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment on Right to Privacy being a fundamental right, the enforcer of such rights in Bengal — the Hon’ble High Court at Calcutta is under severe threat of losing its efficacy due to dearth of adequate number of judges, a perpetual concern, neglected by the central government due to authoritarianism. This step-motherly attitude and apathy of the central government in appointing judges in Calcutta High Court is a product of vicious political strategy of its authoritarian top brass. They intend to incapacitate the already overburdened judiciary of West Bengal and consequently destroy the rule of law in the state and draw whatever political advantage possible out of it. It is abhorrent to think that only for collecting a few brownie points these demagogues have put a historic institution like the Calcutta High Court into an unprecedented serious crisis. This will not just have an impact on the judiciary but also on the economy and the investment attractiveness of the State. The parameter of “ease of doing business’’ of achieving expeditious and efficient judicial resolution is also seriously hampered,’’ says Banerjee’s post. The post comes on the heels of an order issued by a division bench comprising Justices Dipankar Datta and Debi Prosad Dey on July 12, in the matter of an anticipatory bail hearing, in which the petitioner had been arrested by the Kolkata Police by the time the matter came before court. The division bench had observed that the Calcutta High Court would lose its efficacy due to the dearth of adequate number of judges which “the powers that be having the wherewithal to address and resolve have neglected by their various shades of authoritarianism.’’ The bench, in its order, has directed the Union law ministry to ensure the immediate appointment of judges or the court would take “appropriate action as authorized in law”. “The sanctioned strength of judges in this court is 72. Till a couple of years back, the sanctioned strength was 58. Today, this court has a functional strength of 34 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, four judges have already retired. In course of the next month, three judges and by November 8, 2017, another four judges including the Hon’ble Acting Chief Justice would lay down office. In February next, three more judges would retire. If no judge is appointed by February 11, 2018, the vacancy would rise to nearly 66 per cent,’’ says the court order. “Can the nation think of the Lok Sabha in a functional state with half of its elected members? Similarly, can Legislative Assemblies function at half-strength? Again, does one find the bureaucracy functioning years after years without sufficient personnel? No time is spared in making the necessary appointments at the right time to ensure its smooth functioning. This bench is thus left to wonder as to why only in respect of filling up of vacancies in the High Courts, which are also high Constitutional authorities, there is such a brazen apathy and indifference of the political executive,” the bench goes on to say. When contacted by The Indian Express, Chief Public Prosecutor of the Calcutta high Court Swasata Gopal Mukherjee said, “There is a huge backlog of cases due to the dearth of Honourable Judges in the Calcutta High Court. Most of them are overworked, working beyond, sometimes, what is humanly possible. Every couple of months there are Judges retiring increasing the paucity thereby. So a citizen approaching the court for remedy is not receiving it – in anticipatory bail hearings it is possible that by the time the hearing comes up the person may already be arrested. Or in a civil case if a tenants petition is slotted for two months later than he or she may have been evicted by the time the case comes up for hearing.’’ Talking of the burden of judicial and administrative work, the court order goes on to say: “To cite an instance, each division bench/single bench for want of adequate number of judges, is now required to deal with matters of two/three other benches apart from their own determination. Faced with such situation, the time for dealing with matters pertaining to specific subjects has to be rationed so that one particular subject does not get undue preference over others. Naturally, time management has now become a key factor in the process of judging.’’ To handle the mounting pending cases in all courts, high-power committees have been formed, including the National Court Management Systems and Arrears Committees. “One of the basic reasons for the mounting arrears had been identified to be the low judge-population ratio. The sanctioned strength of all High Courts was increased by 25% pursuant to a recommendation of the NCMS Committee. It is unfortunate that so far as this court is concerned, even the sanctioned strength prior to such recommendation (58) was never achieved, not to speak of the 25% increase. The maximum number of judges this court had, in its more than 150 years of existence, was 50 on October 30, 2013. In between that date and October 22, 2014, i.e. when the next appointment came to be made, 12 judges retired and one chief justice was elevated to the Supreme Court. Thus, it is seen that in no time the functional strength came down to 37 from 50 within a year’s time,” said the division bench. For all the latest Cities News, download Indian Express App Kolkata police gives nod for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose anniversary rally Violence in civic elections: BJP demands resignation of state election commissioner in West Bengal
Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and Mamata Banerjee’s nephew (Source: Express Photo/Subham Dutta)
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