Calcutta High Court
The 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 High Court building's design is somewhat based on the Cloth Hall, Ypres, in Belgium.[1] It is the oldest high court in India.[2]
| Calcutta High Court | |
|---|---|
Calcutta High Court building | |
| Established | 1 July 1862 |
| 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″N 88°20′36″E / 22.56833°N 88.34333°ECoordinates: 22°34′6″N 88°20′36″E / 22.56833°N 88.34333°E |
| Composition method | Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state. |
| Authorized by | Constitution of India |
| Judge term length | Till 62 years of age |
| Number of positions | 72 {54 Permanent ; 18 Addl.} |
| Website | calcuttahighcourt.gov.in |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | T. S. Sivagnanam |
| Since | 3 May 2023 |
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, 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 | 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 | 3 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 | Indira Banerjee | 7 August 2018 | 23 September 2022 | Calcutta |
| 2 | Aniruddha Bose | 24 May 2019 | 10 April 2024 | Calcutta |
| 3 | Dipankar Datta | 12 December 2022 | 8 February 2027 | 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 |
| 3 | Joymalya Bagchi | BAR | 27 June 2011 | 2 October 2028 | Judge of Andhra Pradesh High Court |
| 4 | Sudip Ahluwalia | SERVICE | 1 October 2013 | 30 December 2021 | Judge of Punjab and Haryana High Court |
Sitting Judges of 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
- ^ a b . Archived from the original on 6 March 2007. Retrieved 7 April 2007.
- ^ "Which is the oldest High Court in India?". TimesNow. Retrieved 29 October 2022.
- ^ "Cabinet renames high courts in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai". 5 July 2016.
- ^ PTI (20 July 2016). "Govt. moves Bill to change names of High Courts". The Hindu. from the original on 5 November 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ "Orders/notification of establishment of a bench of Calcutta High Court at Jalpaiguri (English/ Hindi) (07.02.2019)" (PDF). Retrieved 12 February 2019.
- ^ "Chief Justices appointed to Five High Courts [Read Notifications] - Bar & Bench". Bar & Bench. 24 October 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
- ^ "Justice Prakash Shrivastava takes oath as Chief Justice of Calcutta HC". India Today. 11 October 2021. Retrieved 12 October 2021.
- ^ HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. . 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
- (archived 6 March 2007)
- Judge strength in High Courts increased