Centre Appoints Justice Kausik Chanda As Permanent Judge Of Calcutta High Court

The Central Government has appointed Justice Kausik Chanda as a permanent judge of the Calcutta High Court, accepting a recommendation made by the Supreme Court collegium in that regard few days ago.The Notification/Warrant of appointment in this regard was issued yesterday which reads thus:"In exercise of the power conferred by clause (1) of Article 217 of the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Justice Kausik Chanda, Additional Judge of the Calcutta High Court, to be a Judge of the Calcutta High Court with effect from the date he assumes charge of his office."About Justice ChandaBorn on January 04, 1974, Justice Chanda graduated from Calcutta University in Law in 1997 and thereafter, enrolled as an Advocate on December 18,1998. He was designated as a Senior Advocate on June 10, 2014 and was appointed as the Additional Solicitor General of India on April 09, 2015. He held the said position till September, 2019. He was elevated to the Bench, as an Additional Judge of the High Court at Calcutta on October 01, 2019.Recent controversyIt is important to note that Justice Chanda was caught in the eye of a political storm in West Bengal when the Chief Minister of the State, Mamata Banerjee sought that her challenge to Nandigram election results, where she was defeated by BJP's Suvendu Adhikary in the 2021 Assembly Polls be reassigned from his bench.The Chief Minister had objected to Justice Chanda hearing her petition citing "likelihood of bias "due to the associations he had with BJP during his days as a lawyer.In a letter written to the Acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court Rajesh Bindal, Banerjee had urged him to reassign her Election Petition to another judge (other than Justice Kausik Chanda) to avoid prejudice against herself.The letter objected to the listing of her petition before Justice Kaushik Chanda and states:"My client has the utmost faith in the Judicial system and the Majesty of this Court, however, there is a reasonable apprehension in the mind of my about the likelihood of bias on the part of the Honorable Judge:"Importantly, the letter also mentions that CM Banerjee had written to Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court and had objected to the Confirmation of Justice Chanda as a permanent Judge of the High Court.Finally, on July 7, Justice Kausik Chanda of the Calcutta High Court had decided to recuse himself from hearing the case while observing that he does not have a conflict of interest in the election petition moved by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,The Judge, however, decided to recuse himself from the hearing, saying that if the matter continues before him, then some 'trouble mongers' will continue to keep the controversy alive and even find new controversies to affect the proceedings.However, he had imposed a cost of Rs 5 lakhs on Mamata Banerjee for the manner in which the application seeking recusal was moved. Justice Chanda had also said that every person has political inclinations and it was preposterous to think that a judge will not be able to do his duty without a sense of detachment.Read/download notification of appointment here

Centre Appoints Justice Kausik Chanda As Permanent Judge Of Calcutta High Court

Sparsh Upadhyay

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