Govt clears Collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Dipankar Datta to SC

Justice Datta’s name was recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium headed by former Chief Justice U U Lalit on September 26. However, with the file not being cleared, charges flew thick and fast with some lawyers questioning the government during its recent stand-off with the top court over the Collegium issue, for not acting on the recommendation.

Born on February 9, 1965, Justice Datta enrolled as an Advocate on November 16, 1989. He practised mainly in the Calcutta High Court, as well as in Supreme Court and other High Courts in constitutional and civil matters. He was made a permanent judge of Calcutta High Court on June 22, 2006. He was subsequently elevated as Chief Justice of Bombay High Court on April 28, 2020.

The top court now has a working strength of 27 judges as against a sanctioned strength of 34 judges. The vacancies will rise to eight next month with Justice S Abdul Nazeer set to retire on January 4. Next year will also see seven more judges completing their tenure. In fact, Justice Datta’s name was the only one cleared by the Collegium under CJI Lalit. Attempts to discuss a few other names had run into rough weather with two of the Collegium members opposing the clearing of the names by circulating the proposal among the Collegium members instead of having physical deliberations.

CJI Lalit, who had a brief tenure, had resorted to the ‘circulation’ move as he was running out of time, after a scheduled Collegium meeting failed to materialise.