Calcutta High Court
| Calcutta High Court | |
|---|---|
|
Calcutta High Court Building | |
| Established | 1 July 1862 |
| Country |
 India |
| Location |
Kolkata, West Bengal (Principal Seat) Jalpaiguri; Port Blair, Andaman and Nicobar Islands (circuit bench) |
| 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 |
| Decisions are appealed to | Supreme Court of India |
| Judge term length | Till 62 years of age |
| No. of positions | 32 |
| Website | calcuttahighcourt.nic.in |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Hon'ble Justice Nishita Nirmal Mhatre (Acting) |
| Since | December 1, 2016 |
The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. 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 based on the Cloth Hall, Ypres, in Belgium.[1]
The court has a sanctioned judge strength of 63.
History
The Calcutta High Court is one of the three High Courts in India established at the Presidency Towns by Letters patent granted by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, bearing date June 26, 1862, and is the oldest High Court in India. It was established as the High Court of Judicature at Fort William on July 1, 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861, which was preceded by the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William.
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 Cabinet on July 5, 2016 alongside renaming of its two other counterparts in Chennai and Mumbai[2] However, 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 of West Bengal.
Chief Justice
The current acting Chief Justice is Justice Nishita Nirmal Mhatre.
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 Mitter 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.
On 20 September 1871, the acting Chief Justice, Sir John Paxton Norman, was murdered on the steps of the courthouse by Wahabi Muslims.[3]
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 |
|---|---|
| Hon'ble Sir Barnes Peacock | 1862–1870 |
| Hon'ble Sir Richard Couch | 1870–1875 |
| Hon'ble Sir Richard Garth | 1875–1886 |
| Hon'ble Sir William Comer Petheram | 1886–1896 |
| Hon'ble Sir Francis William Maclean | 1896–1909 |
| Hon'ble Sir George Claus Rankin | 1926–1934 |
| Hon'ble Sir Harold Derbyshire | 1934–1946 |
| Hon'ble Sir Arthur Trevor Harries | 1946–1952 |
| Hon'ble Justice Phani Bhusan Chakravartti (First Indian Chief Justice in Calcutta High Court) | 1952–1958 |
| Hon'ble Justice Kulada Charan Das Gupta | 1958–1959 |
| Hon'ble Justice Surajit Chandra Lahiri | 1959–1961 |
| Hon'ble Justice Himansu Kumar Bose | 1961–1966 |
| Hon'ble Justice Deep Narayan Sinha | 1966–1970 |
| Hon'ble Justice Prasanta Bihari Mukherjee | 1970–1972 |
| Hon'ble Justice Sankar Prasad Mitra | 1972–1979 |
| Hon'ble Justice Amarendra Nath Sen | 1979–1981 |
| Hon'ble Justice Sambhu Chandra Ghose | 1981–1983 |
| Hon'ble Justice Samarendra Chandra Deb | January 1983 – February 1983 |
| Hon'ble Justice Satish Chandra | 1983–1986 |
| Hon'ble Justice Anil Kumar Sen | September 1986 – October 1986 |
| Justice Chittatosh Mukherjee | 1 November 1986 – 1 November 1987 |
| Hon'ble Justice Debi Singh Tewatia | 1 November 1987 – 1988 |
| Hon'ble Justice Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai | 1988–1991 |
| Hon'ble Justice Nagendra Prasad Singh | 4 February 1992 – 14 June 1992 |
| Hon'ble Justice Anandamoy Bhattacharjee | 1992–1994 |
| Hon'ble Justice Krishna Chandra Agarwal | 1994–1996 |
| Hon'ble Justice V. N. Khare | 2 February 1996 – 20 March 1997 |
| Hon'ble Justice Prabha Shankar Mishra | 1997–1998 |
| Hon'ble Justice Ashok Kumar Mathur | 22 December 1999 – 6 June 2004 |
| Hon'ble Justice V. S. Sirpurkar | 20 March 2005 – 11 January 2007 |
| Hon'ble Justice Surinder Singh Nijjar | 8 March 2007 – 16 November 2009 |
| Hon'ble Justice Mohit Shantilal Shah | 2009–2010 |
| Hon'ble Justice Jainarayan Patel | 2010–2012 |
| Hon'ble Justice Arun Kumar Mishra | 2012–2014 |
| Hon'ble Justice Manjula Chellur | 2014–2016 |
| Hon'ble Justice Girish Chandra Gupta | 21 September 2016–30 November 2016 |
| Hon'ble Justice Nishita Nirmal Mhatre | 1 December 2016–till date |
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.[4]
In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure.[5]
References
- ↑ Court's official website
- ↑ Change of name of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta HC
- ↑ Ivermee, Robert. Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910.
- ↑ Court's official website
- ↑ HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. "CITY SESSIONS COURT, CALCUTTA". calcuttahighcourt.nic.in. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
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