Calcutta High Court
Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court 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 Gothic Revival building was completed in 1872, and designed by Walter Long Bozzi Granville.
Currently, the court has a sanctioned judge strength of 72.
History
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, 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 was designed by Walter Long Bozzi Granville, and loosely modelled on the Ypres Cloth Hall in Flanders, Belgium, with a similar long facade of serried Gothic pointed arches, and a tall central tower with corner spires. It is constructed of red brick with stucco dressings above a vaulted cloister of Barakur sandstone. It has been described as the only significant secular Gothic building in the city, something of an aberration amid the neoclassical edifices of other government buildings, such as Granville's own earlier General Post Office building in Dalhousie Square.
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. The Bill called High Courts Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on 19 July 2016 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 Act, 1953, the Calcutta High Court's jurisdiction was extended to cover Chandernagore 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 within 5 districts- Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.Chief Justice and Judges
The court has a Sanctioned strength of 72 judges.Sitting Judges of Calcutta High Court-
Currently, Justice Sujoy Paul is the 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
Judges elevated as Chief Justice
This sections contains list of only those judges elevated as chief justices whose parent high court is Calcutta. This includes those judges who, at the time of appointment as chief justice, may not be serving in Calcutta High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of appointment as chief justice were serving in Calcutta High Court but does not have Calcutta as their Parent High Court.;Key
- Resigned
- Elevated to Supreme Court
Judges elevated to Supreme Court
;Key
- Resigned
- Died in office
Building
The design, by then government architect Walter Granville, was loosely modelled on the 13th-century Cloth Hall at Ypres, Belgium.
In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure.