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;163 years ago (1862-07-01)
Jurisdiction	West Bengal and Andaman & Nicobar Islands
Location	Principal Seat: Calcutta (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	Soumen Sen (acting)
Since	16 September 2025

Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. ^[1] It is located at Esplanade Row West, Calcutta (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 Calcutta (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 acting Chief Justice of the court is Justice Soumen Sen. 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. Romesh Chandra Mitra was the first Indian officiating Chief Justice and Phani Bhushan Chakravartti was the first Indian permanent Chief Justice of the court. The longest-serving Chief Justice was Mr. 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.

Judges Elevated to the Supreme Court of India-

Sr. No	Name of the Judge, Justice	Date of Elevation	Date of Retirement
1	Dipankar Datta	12 December 2022	8 February 2030
2	Joymalya Bagchi	17 March 2025	2 October 2031

Judges Transferred/Elevated from the Calcutta High Court-

Sr. No.	Name of the Judge, Justice	Date of Appointment	Date of Retirement	Remark
1	Biswanath Somadder	22 June 2006	14 December 2025	Chief Justice of Sikkim High Court
2	Indra Prasanna Mukerji	18 May 2009	5 September 2025	Chief Justice of Meghalaya High Court
3	Harish Tandon	13 April 2010	15 November 2026	Chief Justice of Orissa High Court

Sitting Judges of Calcutta High Court-

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

Judges who served as Chief Justice of India

#	Name of the Chief Justice	Image	Date of Appointment as Chief Justice	Date of Retirement	Tenure	Appointed By	Date of elevation to Supreme Court	Nominated as judge of Supreme court by	Total tenure in Supreme court (including as CJI)	Date of Initial Appointment as Judge	Post held at the time of elevation to Supreme Court	Remarks
1	Bijan Kumar Mukherjea		23 December 1954	31 January 1956	1 year, 39 days	Rajendra Prasad	28 January 1950	--	6 years, 3 days	November 1936	Judge of Calcutta High Court	4th Chief Justice of India
2	Sudhi Ranjan Das		1 February 1956	30 September 1959	3 years, 241 days	Rajendra Prasad	28 January 1950	--	9 years, 245 days	1942	2nd Chief Justice of Punjab High Court	5th Chief Justice of India
3	Amal Kumar Sarkar		16 March 1966	29 June 1966	105 days	Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan	4 March 1957	Sudhi Ranjan Das	9 years, 117 days	January 1949	Judge of Calcutta High Court	8th Chief Justice of India
4	Ajit Nath Ray		26 April 1973	28 January 1977	3 years, 276 days	V. V. Giri	1 August 1969	Mohammad Hidayatullah	7 years, 179 days	Not known	Judge of Calcutta High Court	14th Chief Justice of India
5	Sabyasachi Mukharji		18 December 1989	25 September 1990	281 days	Ramaswamy Venkataraman	15 March 1983	Yeshwant Vishnu Chandrachud	7 years, 194 days	31 July 1968	Judge of Calcutta High Court	20th Chief Justice of India
6	Altamas Kabir		29 September 2012	18 July 2013	292 days	Pranab Mukherjee	9 September 2005	Ramesh Chandra Lahoti	7 years, 312 days	6 August 1990	3rd Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court	39th Chief Justice of India

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