Kolkata, Dec 28 (IANS): After a gap of almost 18 months, the two Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Courts in Kolkata finally got their permanent judges.

These two courts, namely the CBI (Prevention of Money Laundering Act) Court and Special CBI Court-2, both in Kolkata, had been operating so far with acting judges.

A notification was issued by the Calcutta High Court on Thursday announcing the appointment of the judges for these two courts.

While the additional session judge of Bankura District Court Prashanta Mukhopadhyay has been appointed as the judge for the CBI-PMLA court, the additional session judge of Krishnanagar Court in Nadia district has been appointed as the judge of the Special CBI Court-2.

The courts will be back in session after its year-end holiday on January 2, following which the permanent judges for these two CBI courts in Kolkata will take their respective changes.

According to the legal circles, the development was extremely necessary when the sleuths of both CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), who are conducting parallel probes on various cases of financial irregularities and money laundering in West Bengal, are running against time to wind up their investigation and complete those process following deadlines set by both Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court.

Often, feel legal circles, the process of fast track basis hearings in the matter were hurdled at these CBI courts because of the absence of permanent judges. But, finally after the notification from the registrar of the Calcutta High Court, it is expected that the hearings in the matter at these two courts will gain momentum.