| Calcutta High Court | |
|---|---|
Calcutta High Court Building |
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| Established | 1862 |
| Jurisdiction | India |
| Location | Kolkata |
| Composition method | Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state. |
| Authorized by | Constitution of India |
| Decisions are appealed to | Supreme Court of India |
| Judge term length | Till 62 years of age |
| Number of positions | 32 |
| Website | http://calcuttahighcourt.nic.in |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | J.N. Patel |
| Since | 2010 |
| Lead position ends | 2012 |
The Calcutta High Court (Bengali: কলকাতা উচ্চ আদালত) 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. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court building is an exact replica of the Stand Haus in Ypres, Belgium. It is recorded that when the original Stand Haus burnt down, a blue print of Granville's Calcutta High Court had to be consulted before rebuilding it.
The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 63. Despite the name of the city having officially changed from Calcutta to Kolkata in 2001, the old name is retained by the court as it is an institution.
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The Calcutta High Court opened with 13 puisne judges. The first Indian judge Sambhunath Pandit assumed the charge on 22 January 1863.
The seat of the Calcutta High Court is at Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. It also has a permanent circuit bench in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
The current Chief Justice is Hon'ble Mr. Justice J. N. Patel. His Lordship was the senior most judge at the Bombay High 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. Romesh Chandra Mitter 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 Sankar Prasad Mitra.
| Chief Justice | Term |
|---|---|
| Chittatosh Mookerjee | 1 November 1986–1 November 1987 |
| N.P. Singh | 4 February 1992–14 June 1992 |
| V.N. Khare | 2 February 1996–20 March 1997 |
| Ashok Kumar Mathur | 22 December 1999–6 June 2004 |
| V. S. Sirpurkar | 20 March 2005–11 January 2007 |
| Surinder Singh Nijjar | 8 March 2007–16 November 2009 |
The neo-Gothic High Court building was constructed in 1872, ten years after the establishment of the court itself.[1]
The design, by then government architecht Walter Granville, was loosely modelled on the 13th-century Cloth Hall at Ypres, Belgium.[2]
During 2010, over six decades after India's independence, a curious if swiftly quashed [3]legal debate questioned whether the court was still technically under the jurisdiction of the Queen of England rather than the Indian state.