Three new judges for HC; lawyers strike on

Three practising lawyers today took oath as judges of the Calcutta High Court, where advocates are on strike for the past three weeks, demanding appointments in the judiciary.
Acting Chief Justice J Bhattacharya administered the oath of office to Shampa Sarkar, Ravi Krishan Kapur and Arindam Mukherjee.
The appointment of the three new judges takes the present strength of judges in the high court to 33 against the sanctioned capacity of 72.
The union law minister has invited representatives of the three lawyers' bodies to a meeting on March 15, Calcutta High Court Bar Association president Uttam Majumdar said.
"We will ventilate our views to the law minister and discuss the issue of abnormally low number of judges at the high court and seek immediate measures for the appointment of more judges to reduce the huge gap in the number of sitting judges and the sanctioned strength," Majumdar told PTI.

He said that the lawyers' fora will also take up with the law minister the appointment of a chief justice at the high court, which has had acting chief justices at the helm for the last three years with the exception of just three months.

"We will place before the members during our next general body meeting on March 19 the details of the discussion and a decision will be taken on further continuation of the ongoing ceasework thereafter," he said.
The Bar Association, the Bar Library Club and the Incorporated Law Society had made a joint representation to the union law minister seeking a meeting with him to discuss the issue.

Bar Library Club president Jayanta Mitra and Incorporated Law Society secretary Paritosh Sinha said that they will take up with the minister the issue of low number of judges at the high court and inform the members of their respective bodies about the outcome of the meeting.
All the three associations representing lawyers at the Calcutta High Court had decided to go for a ceasework from February 19 demanding appointment of judges.
The associations, which have extended the ceasework twice and is scheduled to continue till March 16, had earlier complained that the union law ministry had not responded to their joint representation to meet the law minister to discuss the issue.

The three bodies will meet and discuss whether the agitation will continue beyond March 16.