calcutta high court

The Calcutta High Court rose to 54, the highest in several decades with the swearing-in of nine new judges on August 31. The oldest HC in India has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges. Notably, nine new judges were administered oath by Chief Justice of Calcutta Prakash Shrivastava at a ceremony in the HC. The Calcutta High Court Bar Association president Arunabha Ghosh welcomed new judges and  assures support.

Calcutta HC ordered a CBI probe in the Birbhum Violence case, which killed eight people in West Bengal. On March 25, the HC bench, comprising Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice R Bharadwaj asked the state government formed SIT to hand over the case to the central agency. Notably, the HC took the decision in interest of justice, after taking suo-moto case and reviewing petitions seeking CBI investigation.

In view of the COVID-19 surge, the Calcutta HC, on January 14, directed the Election Commission to postpone civic polls by 4-6 weeks. Hearing a petition, the HC asked the EC to delay the Siliguri, Chandernagore, Bidhannagar and Asansol municipal Corporations elections, scheduled to be held on January 22. The decision came at a time when, West Bengal reported over 20,000 COVID-19 cases with over 60% positivity rate. 

The Calcutta High Court, on January 7, gave a go ahead to the upcoming Ganga Sagar Mela in West Bengal.  However, the Court directed the State to follow COVID-19 protocol. A three member committee, including a leader from opposition party, Human rights Commission Chairman and a representative of WB were formed to see compliance. Notably, Ganga Sagar is scheduled between January 8 to January 16, at Sagar Island. 

Calcutta High Court's Justice Arindam Sinha addressed a condemning letter to acting CJ and colleagues over the mishandling of the Narada case. Justice Sinha wrote, 'We have been reduced to a mockery,' and demanded to get their act together. He deemed the labelling of CBI's petition to transfer the case outside Bengal as a 'writ petition' as wrong and should have been a single bench hearing instead of division bench.