Calcutta High Court

Calcutta High Court
কলকাতা উচ্চ আদালত
Calcutta High Court building
Interactive map of Calcutta High Court
22°34′6″N88°20′36″E / 22.56833°N 88.34333°E / 22.56833; 88.34333
Established	1 July 1862;163 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	Sujoy Paul (Acting)
Since	8 October 2025

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 modelled on the Ypres Cloth Hall 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 Kolkata, the 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

Currently, Justice Sujoy Paul is the acting Chief Justice of the court. 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. Sir Romesh Chandra Mitra was the first officiating Indian Chief Justice and Phani Bhushan Chakravartti was the first permanent Indian Chief Justice of the court. The longest-serving Chief Justice was Justice Sankar Prasad Mitra.

List of Chief Justices

#	Chief Justice	Term
1	Sir Barnes Peacock	1862–1870
2	Sir Richard Couch	1870–1875
3	Sir Richard Garth	1875–1886
—	Sir Romesh Chandra Mitra (acting)	1886 [7]
4	Sir William Comer Petheram	1886–1896
5	Sir Francis William Maclean	1896–1909
—	Sir Chunder Madhub Ghose (acting)	1906 [7]
6	Sir Lawrence Hugh Jenkins	1909–1915
7	Sir Lancelot Sanderson	1915–1926
—	Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (acting)	1920, 1923 [7]
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 — 15 September 2025

Judges

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

Sitting Judges of Calcutta High Court-

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

Judges elevated to Supreme Court

Currently serving

#	Name of the Judge	Image	Date of Appointment as Judge	Date of elevation to Supreme Court	Date of Retirement	Tenure			Immediately preceding office
						As HC Judge	As Supreme Court Judge	Total tenure (including both SC and HC)
1	Dipankar Datta		22 June 2006	12 December 2022	8 February 2030	16 years, 172 days	7 years, 59 days	23 years, 232 days	45th CJ of Bombay HC
2	Joymalya Bagchi		27 June 2011	17 March 2025	2 October 2031	13 years, 262 days	6 years, 200 days	20 years, 98 days	Judge of Calcutta HC

Former judges

#	Name of the Judge	Image	Date of Appointment as Judge	Date of elevation to Supreme Court	Date of Retirement	Tenure			Immediately preceding office	Remarks
						As HC Judge	As Supreme Court Judge	Total tenure (including both SC and HC)
1	Bijan Kumar Mukherjea		8 July 1936	26 January 1950	31 January 1956	12 years, 98 days	6 years, 6 days	19 years, 208 days	Elevated to Federal Court of India on 13 October 1948	4th Chief Justice of India
2	Sudhi Ranjan Das		1942	26 January 1950	30 September 1959		9 years, 248 days		Elevated to Federal Court of India on 20 January 1950	5th Chief Justice of India
3	Amal Kumar Sarkar		25 January 1949	4 March 1957	29 June 1966	8 years, 38 days	9 years, 118 days	17 years, 156 days	Judge of Calcutta HC	8th Chief Justice of India
4	Kulada Charan Das Gupta		June 1948	29 August 1959	2 January 1965		5 years, 132 days		12th CJ of Calcutta HC
5	Ranadhir Singh Bachawat		1950	7 September 1964	31 July 1969		4 years, 328 days		Judge of Calcutta HC
6	Gopendra Krishna Mitter		24 November 1952	29 August 1966	23 September 1971	13 years, 278 days	5 years, 26 days	18 years, 304 days	Judge of Calcutta HC
7	Ajit Nath Ray		23 December 1957	1 August 1969	27 January 1977	11 years, 221 days	7 years, 180 days	19 years, 36 days	Judge of Calcutta HC	14th Chief Justice of India
8	Arun Kumar Mukherjea		27 February 1962	14 August 1972	23 October 1973	10 years, 169 days	1 year, 71 days	11 years, 239 days	Judge of Calcutta HC	Died in office
9	Amarendra Nath Sen		15 November 1965	28 January 1981	30 September 1985	15 years, 74 days	4 years, 246 days	19 years, 320 days	18th CJ of Calcutta HC
10	Sabyasachi Mukharji		31 July 1968	15 March 1983	25 September 1990	14 years, 227 days	7 years, 195 days	22 years, 57 days	Judge of Calcutta HC	20th Chief Justice of India and Died in office
11	Bankim Chandra Ray		10 June 1974	29 October 1985	31 October 1991	11 years, 141 days	6 years, 3 days	17 years, 144 days	Judge of Calcutta HC
12	Murari Mohan Dutt		18 September 1969	10 March 1986	29 October 1989	16 years, 173 days	3 years, 234 days	20 years, 42 days	Judge of Calcutta HC
13	Ganendra Narayan Ray		23 December 1976	7 October 1991	30 April 1998	14 years, 288 days	6 years, 206 days	21 years, 129 days	11th CJ of Gujarat HC
14	Manoj Kumar Mukherjee		17 June 1977	14 December 1993	30 November 1998	16 years, 180 days	4 years, 352 days	21 years, 167 days	27th CJ of Bombay HC
15	Suhas C. Sen		23 November 1981	11 June 1994	20 December 1997	12 years, 200 days	3 years, 193 days	16 years, 28 days	Judge of Calcutta HC
16	Umesh Chandra Banerjee		9 January 1984	9 December 1998	17 November 2002	14 years, 334 days	3 years, 344 days	18 years, 313 days	CJ of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh HC
17	Ruma Pal		6 August 1990	28 January 2000	3 June 2006	9 years, 175 days	6 years, 127 days	15 years, 302 days	Judge of Calcutta HC
18	Tarun Chatterjee		6 August 1990	27 August 2004	14 January 2010	14 years, 21 days	5 years, 141 days	19 years, 162 days	37th CJ of Allahabad HC
19	Altamas Kabir		6 August 1990	9 September 2005	18 July 2013	15 years, 34 days	7 years, 313 days	22 years, 347 days	3rd CJ of Jharkhand HC	39th Chief Justice of India
20	Asok Kumar Ganguly		10 January 1994	17 December 2008	3 February 2012	14 years, 342 days	3 years, 49 days	18 years, 25 days	34th CJ of Madras HC
21	Pinaki Chandra Ghose		17 July 1997	8 March 2013	27 May 2017	15 years, 234 days	4 years, 81 days	19 years, 315 days	CJ of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh HC
22	Indira Banerjee		5 February 2002	7 August 2018	23 September 2022	16 years, 183 days	4 years, 48 days	20 years, 231 days	39th CJ of Madras HC
23	Aniruddha Bose		19 January 2004	24 May 2019	10 April 2024	15 years, 125 days	4 years, 323 days	20 years, 83 days	12th CJ of Jharkhand HC

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. ^[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.^{[ 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. "Supreme Court of Bangladesh". www.supremecourt.gov.bd. Retrieved 15 August 2025.
8. 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