Union Law and Justice Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal Saturday announced the appointment of three advocates as additional judges to the Calcutta High Court. Smita Das De, Reetobroto Kumar Mitra and Om Narayan Rai were among the five recommended for judgeship by the Supreme Court Collegium on February 28.

Meghwal made the announcement through a post on X and said, “In exercise of the power conferred by the Constitution of India, the President of India, after consultation with Chief Justice of India, is pleased to appoint the following as Additional Judges in the Calcutta High Court. I convey my best wishes to them:”

The Calcutta High Court has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges. Currently, there are 28 vacant positions. The court has 44 judges: 33 permanent judges and 11 additional judges.

Recently, the Supreme Court Collegium nominated Justice Joymalya Bagchi of the Calcutta High Court for appointment as a Supreme Court Judge. Additionally, the Collegium recommended that Justice Harish Tandon of the Calcutta High Court be appointed as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.

Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam is set to complete his term in September 2025. Additionally, Justice Bibhas Ranjan De will retire from the Calcutta High Court by the end of this year.

Before these appointments, the Calcutta High Court had the second-highest number of judicial vacancies after the Allahabad High Court. With the appointment of Smita Das De as an additional judge, the Calcutta High Court will now have a total of eight women judges.

The Calcutta High Court is currently hearing 1,70,000 cases on the appellate side, of which 1,50,000 are civil matters. Additionally, the court is handling 16,961 cases on the original side. The Calcutta High Court also has two circuit benches: one in Port Blair and the other in Jalpaiguri.