Kolkata: Eight lawyers from the Bar were sworn in as additional judges in Calcutta High Court on Saturday. They are Justices Aryak Dutt, Atarup Banerjee, Sandip Kumar De, Partha Pratim Roy, Sudip Deb, Anuj Singh, Arjun Ray Mukherjee and Rishad Medora.
The demand for having more judges in the country’s old chartered high court were repeatedly made from the Bar.
Even the former Chief Justice TS Sivagnanam during his farewell speech on Sept 15, 2025, said that after being transferred to Calcutta High Court in 2021, he had requested the then chief justice for ways to recommend names from the Bar for judgeship. “With the help of my fellow judges 17 names have been recommended. Even if 10 come through, that will be a good addition to the high court,” he said.
The high court has a sanctioned strength of 72 judges, comprising 54 permanent judges and 18 additional judges. As of May 1, 2026, it had a working strength of 42 judges, leaving 30 vacancies.
In March 2025, the Centre had appointed advocates Smita Das De, Reetobroto Kumar Mitra and Om Narayan Rai as additional judges of the high court.