Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court is one of the oldest High Courts in India. It is located at Esplanade Row West, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court building's design is somewhat based on the Lakenhal (the Cloth Hall) in Ypres in Flanders, Belgium.[1] It is the oldest high court in India.[2]

Calcutta High Court
কলকাতা উচ্চ ন্যায়ালয়
Calcutta High Court building
22°34′6″N 88°20′36″E
Established1 July 1862 (1862-07-01)
JurisdictionWest Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
LocationPrincipal Seat: Kolkata, West Bengal
Circuit Benches: Jalpaiguri & Port Blair (A & N Islands)
Coordinates22°34′6″N 88°20′36″E
Composition methodPresidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authorized byConstitution of India
Judge term lengthTill 62 years of age
Number of positions72
{54 Permanent ; 18 Addl.}
Websitecalcuttahighcourt.gov.in
Chief Justice
CurrentlyT. S. Sivagnanam
Since11 May 2023

Currently, the court has a sanctioned judge strength of 72.

History
Calcutta High Court in the 1860s
Calcutta High Court in the 1890s

The Calcutta High Court is one of the three High Courts in India established at the Presidency Towns by Letters patent granted by Queen Victoria, bearing date 26 June 1862, and is the oldest High Court in India. It was established as the High Court of Judicature at Fort William on 1 July 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861, which was preceded by the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William. The building structure was designed by Walter Long Bozzi Granville.

Despite the name of the city having officially changed from Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001, the Court, as an institution retained the old name. The bill to rename it as Kolkata High Court was approved by the Union Cabinet on 5 July 2016 along with the renaming of its two other counterparts in Chennai and Mumbai.[3] The Bill called High Courts (Alternation of Names) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19 July 2016[4] and is yet to be passed by both Houses of Parliament. Hence, the High Court still retains the old name.

Principal seat and benches

The seat of the Calcutta High Court is at Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. As per the Calcutta High Court (Extension of Jurisdiction) Act, 1953, the Calcutta High Court's jurisdiction was extended to cover Chandernagore (now called Chandannagar) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands as of 2 May 1950. The Calcutta High Court extended its Circuit Bench in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and in Jalpaiguri, the divisional headquarters of the North Bengal region. On 7 February 2019, President Ram Nath Kovind finalised the opening of the other circuit bench in Jalpaiguri, West Bengal with the jurisdiction area[5] within 5 districts- Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.

Chief Justice

The current Chief Justice of the court is Justice T. S. Sivagnanam.[6][7]

Sir Barnes Peacock was the first Chief Justice of the High Court. He assumed the charge when the court was founded on 1 July 1862. Justice Romesh Chandra Mitra was the first Indian officiating Chief Justice and Justice Phani Bhushan Chakravartti was the first Indian permanent Chief Justice of the court. The longest-serving Chief Justice was Justice Sankar Prasad Mitra.

List of chief justices

For chief justices of the previous Supreme Court of Bengal see Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William.

# Chief Justice Term
1 Sir Barnes Peacock 1862–1870
2 Sir Richard Couch 1870–1875
3 Sir Richard Garth 1875–1886
4 Sir William Comer Petheram 1886–1896
5 Sir Francis William Maclean 1896–1909
6 Sir Lawrence Hugh Jenkins 1909–1915
7 Sir Lancelot Sanderson 1915–1926
8 Sir George Claus Rankin 1926–1934
9 Sir Harold Derbyshire 1934–1946
10 Sir Arthur Trevor Harries 1946–1952
After Indian Independence
11 Shri Phani Bhusan Chakravartti 1952–1958
12 Shri Kulada Charan Das Gupta 1958–1959
13 Shri Surajit Chandra Lahiri 1959–1961
14 Shri Himansu Kumar Bose 1961–1966
15 Shri Deep Narayan Sinha 1966–1970
16 Shri Prasanta Bihari Mukharji 1970–1972
17 Shri Sankar Prasad Mitra 1972–1979
18 Shri Amarendra Nath Sen 1979–1981
19 Shri Sambhu Chandra Ghose 1981–1983
20 Shri Samarendra Chandra Deb January 1983 – February 1983
21 Shri Satish Chandra 1983–1986
22 Shri Anil Kumar Sen September 1986 – October 1986
23 Shri Chittatosh Mookerjee 1 November 1986 – 1 November 1987
24 Shri Debi Singh Tewatia 1 November 1987 – 1988
25 Shri Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai 1988–1991
26 Shri Nagendra Prasad Singh 4 February 1992 – 14 June 1992
27 Shri Anandamoy Bhattacharjee 1992–1994
28 Shri Krishna Chandra Agarwal 1994–1996
29 Shri V. N. Khare 2 February 1996 – 20 March 1997
30 Shri Prabha Shankar Mishra 1997–1998
31 Shri Ashok Kumar Mathur 22 December 1999 – 6 June 2004
32 Shri V. S. Sirpurkar 20 March 2005 – 11 January 2007
33 Shri Surinder Singh Nijjar 8 March 2007 – 16 November 2009
34 Shri Mohit Shantilal Shah 24 December 2009 – 25 June 2010
35 Shri Jai Narayan Patel 2010 – 4 October 2012
36 Shri Arun Kumar Mishra 14 December 2012 – 6 July 2014
37 Smt. Manjula Chellur 5 August 2014 – 21 August 2016
38 Shri Girish Chandra Gupta 21 September 2016 – 30 November 2016
39 Shri Jyotirmay Bhattacharya 1 May 2018 – 24 September 2018
40 Shri Debasish Kar Gupta (acting) 30 October 2018 – 31 December 2018
41 Shri Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan 4 April 2019 — 28 April 2021
42 Shri Prakash Shrivastava 11 October 2021 — 30 March 2023
43 Shri T. S. Sivagnanam 11 May 2023 — Incumbent

Judges

The court has a Sanctioned strength of 72 (Permanent:54, Additional:18) judges.

Judges Elevated to the Supreme Court of India-

Sr. No Name of the Judge, Justice Date of Elevation Date of Retirement Parent High Court
1 Aniruddha Bose 24 May 2019 10 April 2024 Calcutta
2 Dipankar Datta 12 December 2022 8 February 2030 Calcutta

Judges Transferred/Elevated from the Calcutta High Court-

Sr. No. Name of the Judge, Justice Recruitment Date of Appointment Date of Retirement Remark
1 Biswanath Somadder BAR 22 June 2006 14 December 2025 Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court
2 Sanjib Banerjee BAR 22 June 2006 1 November 2023 Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court

Sitting Judges of Calcutta High Court-

See also: List of sitting judges of High Courts of India § Calcutta High Court

Building

The neo-Gothic High Court building was constructed in 1872, ten years after the establishment of the court itself. The design, by then government architect Walter Granville, was loosely modelled on the 13th-century Cloth Hall at Ypres, Belgium.[1] In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure.[8]

Connectivity

Rails

Eden Gardens railway station is the nearest railway station, which is 650 meters away from the court. Esplanade metro station, the nearest rapid rail transit is 1.3 km away.

References
  1. "Court's official website". Archived from the original on 6 March 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
  2. "Which is the oldest High Court in India?". TimesNow. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
  3. "Cabinet renames high courts in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai". 5 July 2016.
  4. PTI (20 July 2016). "Govt. moves Bill to change names of High Courts". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  5. "Orders/notification of establishment of a bench of Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri (English/ Hindi) (07.02.2019)" (PDF). Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  6. "Chief Justices appointed to Five High Courts [Read Notifications] - Bar & Bench". Bar & Bench. 24 October 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  7. "Justice Prakash Shrivastava takes oath as Chief Justice of Calcutta HC". India Today. 11 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  8. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. "CITY SESSIONS COURT, CALCUTTA". calcuttahighcourt.nic.in. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
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