Calcutta High Court

Calcutta High Court
কলকাতা উচ্চ আদালত
Calcutta High Court building
22°34′6″N88°20′36″E / 22.56833°N 88.34333°E / 22.56833; 88.34333
Established	1 July 1862;162 years ago (1862-07-01)
Jurisdiction	West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Location	Principal Seat: Kolkata, West Bengal Circuit Benches: Jalpaiguri & Port Blair (A & N Islands)
Coordinates	22°34′6″N88°20′36″E / 22.56833°N 88.34333°E / 22.56833; 88.34333
Composition method	Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authorised by	Constitution of India
Judge term length	Till 62 years of age
Number of positions	72
Website	calcuttahighcourt.gov.in
Chief Justice
Currently	T. S. Sivagnanam
Since	11 May 2023

The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. ^[1] 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 (Cloth Hall) in Ypres in Flanders, Belgium. ^[2]

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, and is the oldest High Court in India. It was brought into existence as the High Court of Judicature at Fort William by the Letters Patent dated 14 May 1862, ^[3] issued under the High Courts Act, 1861, which was preceded by the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William. The court was formally opened on 1 July 1862. 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. ^[4] The Bill called High Courts (Alteration of Names) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19 July 2016 ^[5] 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 ^[6] within 5 districts- Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.

Chief Justice

The current Chief Justice of the court is Justice T. S. Sivagnanam. ^[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.

The court's first judges were

• 1 Sir Elijah Impey, Chief justice from 1774 to 1783 on his recall to England for impeachment.
• 2 Stephen Caesar Le Maistre, Puisne judge from 1774 to 1777 on his death.
• 3 John Hyde (judge), Puisne judge from 1774 to 1796 on his death.
• 4 Robert Chambers, Puisne judge from 1774 to 1783, Acting Chief Justice from 1783 to 1791. Chief Justice from 1791 to 1798, on his resignation. ^[8]
• 5 Sir William Jones, Puisne judge from 1783 to 1794 on his death.
• 6 Sir William Dunkin, Puisne judge from August 14, 1791, to unknown.

	Chief Justice	Term	Notes
7	Sir Elijah Impey [9]	16 March 1774–1791	Recalled 1783
8	Sir Robert Chambers [9]	1791–1 Aug 1798	previously Acting Chief Justice 1783–1791
9	Sir John Anstruther, Bt [9]	1798–22 Feb 1806
10	Sir Henry Russell [9]	1807–9 Nov 1813
11	Sir Edward Hyde East [9]	1813–July 1822
12	Sir Robert Henry Blosset [9]	1822–1 Feb 1823	(died in office)
13	Sir Christopher Puller [9]	1823–26 May 1824	(died in office)
14	Sir Charles Grey [9]	1825–1832
15	Sir William O. Russell	22 Feb 1832–1833	(died in office)
16	Sir Edward Ryan	1833–1842
17	Sir Lawrence Peel	1842–1855
18	Sir James William Colvile	1855–1859
19	Sir Barnes Peacock	1859–1862	afterwards Chief Justice of the High Court of Calcutta

For Chief Justices after 1862, see High Court of Calcutta.

Justices

Justices	Term	Notes
Stephen Caesar Le Maistre	22 October 1774–4 Nov 1777	Died
John Hyde [9]	22 October 1774–8 July 1796	Died
William Jones [9]	22 Oct 1783–27 Apr 1791	Died
William Dunkin [9]	3 Sept 1791–1 Aug 1797	Resigned
James Watson [9]	1 Mar 1796–2 May 1796	Died
John Royds [9]	23 Oct 1797–26 Sept 1816	Died
William Burroughs [9]	3 Nov 1806–20 Dec 1815	Resigned
Francis Maonaghten [9]	1 Mar 1816–2 Mar 1825	Resigned
Anthony Buller	26 Sept 1816–1 Jan 1827	Resigned
John Franks	6 Oct 1825–15 Mar 1831	Resigned
John Peter Grant	17 Oct 1833–1848
Benjamin Heath Malkin	6 Oct 1835–21 Oct 1837	Died

List

#	Chief Justice	Term
—	Romesh Chandra Mitra	1861 —1861
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	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. ^[2] In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure. ^[10]

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.^{[ citation needed ]}

References

1. "Which is the oldest High Court in India?". TimesNow. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
2. "Court's official website". Archived from the original on 6 March 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
3. A Brief History about Calcutta High Court
4. "Cabinet renames high courts in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai". 5 July 2016.
5. 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.
6. "Orders/notification of establishment of a bench of Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri (English/ Hindi) (07.02.2019)" (PDF). Retrieved 12 February 2019.
7. "Chief Justices appointed to Five High Courts [Read Notifications] - Bar & Bench". Bar & Bench. 24 October 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
8. Curley, Thomas M. (1998). Sir Robert Chambers: Law, Literature, and Empire in the Age of Johnson . University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN   0299151506.
9. Auber, Peter. An Analysis of the Constitution of the East-India Company. p. 758.
10. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. "CITY SESSIONS COURT, CALCUTTA". calcuttahighcourt.nic.in. Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2017.

External links

• Media related to Calcutta High Court at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website
• Former official website (archived 6 March 2007)
• Judge strength in High Courts increased