Supreme Court Collegium Recommends Appointment of Advocate Biswadeep Bhattacharjee as Meghalaya High Court Judge

Supreme Court Collegium Recommends Appointment of Advocate Biswadeep Bhattacharjee as Meghalaya High Court Judge

The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended the appointment of Additional Advocate-General (AAG) Biswadeep Bhattacharjee as a judge of the High Court of Meghalaya.

With his appointment, the High Court has reached the full strength of four judges, including the Chief Justice.

The High Court Collegium had recommended Bhattacharjee’s name on 12 August, 2023; however, no constitutional functionary gave any input on the proposal. Hence, the Collegium decided to move ahead with forwarding the proposal to the Supreme Court.

“The proposal has, therefore, been forwarded by the Department of Justice to the Supreme Court by invoking Para 14 of the Memorandum of Procedure which provides that if the comments of the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister are not received within six weeks from the date of receipt of the proposal, it shall be presumed that the constitutional authorities in the state have nothing to add to the proposal and the proposal may accordingly be processed,” the resolution noted.

Subsequently, a judge of the Supreme Court conversant with the affairs of the High Court of Meghalaya was consulted.

“AAG Bhattacharjee has a good standing at the Bar, knowledge across matters, and has been Amicus Curiae in two criminal appeals, the Supreme Court Collegium noted. Nothing adverse was reported with regard to his personal integrity”, the Collegium further observed.

Following the consultation procedure laid down in the Memorandum of Procedure, the Supreme Court Collegium scrutinized and evaluated the material placed on record including the observations of the Department of Justice in the file.

The Collegium observed that Advocate Biswadeep Bhattacharjee has a standing of nearly 30 years at the Bar and has appeared before the High Court in a number of civil, criminal, service and constitutional cases.

He was appointed as amicus curiae in two criminal appeals and has been holding the office of Additional Advocate General of the State of Meghalaya since 2018.

It was, therefore, resolved to recommend his name for elevation to the High Court of Meghalaya bench.