Calcutta High Court
Calcutta High Court | |
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Calcutta High Court Building | |
Established | 1 July 1862 |
Country |
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Location |
Principal Seat: Kolkata, West Bengal |
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 | 72 |
Website | calcuttahighcourt.gov.in |
Chief Justice | |
Currently | Debasish kar Gupta [1] |
Since | 1 May 2018[2] |
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.[3]
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 Her Majesty 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.
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 5 July 2016 along with the renaming of its two other counterparts in Chennai and Mumbai.[4] 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 Chief Justice is Jyotirmay Bhattacharya.[5]
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.
On 20 September 1871, the acting Chief Justice, Sir John Paxton Norman, was murdered on the steps of the courthouse by Wahabi Muslims named Abdullah.[6][7]
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 |
---|---|
Sir Barnes Peacock | 1862–1870 |
Sir Richard Couch | 1870–1875 |
Sir Richard Garth | 1875–1886 |
Sir William Comer Petheram | 1886–1896 |
Sir Francis William Maclean | 1896–1909 |
Sir Lawrence Hugh Jenkins | 1909–1915 |
Sir Lancelot Sanderson | 1915–1926 |
Sir George Claus Rankin | 1926–1934 |
Sir Harold Derbyshire | 1934–1946 |
Sir Arthur Trevor Harries | 1946–1952 |
Phani Bhusan Chakravartti | 1952–1958 |
Kulada Charan Das Gupta | 1958–1959 |
Surajit Chandra Lahiri | 1959–1961 |
Himansu Kumar Bose | 1961–1966 |
Deep Narayan Sinha | 1966–1970 |
Prasanta Bihari Mukherjee | 1970–1972 |
Sankar Prasad Mitra | 1972–1979 |
Amarendra Nath Sen | 1979–1981 |
Sambhu Chandra Ghose | 1981–1983 |
Samarendra Chandra Deb | January 1983 – February 1983 |
Satish Chandra | 1983–1986 |
Anil Kumar Sen | September 1986 – October 1986 |
Chittatosh Mookerjee | 1 November 1986 – 1 November 1987 |
Debi Singh Tewatia | 1 November 1987 – 1988 |
Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai | 1988–1991 |
Nagendra Prasad Singh | 4 February 1992 – 14 June 1992 |
Anandamoy Bhattacharjee | 1992–1994 |
Krishna Chandra Agarwal | 1994–1996 |
V. N. Khare | 2 February 1996 – 20 March 1997 |
Prabha Shankar Mishra | 1997–1998 |
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 |
Mohit Shantilal Shah | 2009–2010 |
Jainarayan Patel | 2010–2012 |
Arun Kumar Mishra | 2012–2014 |
Manjula Chellur | 2014–2016 |
Girish Chandra Gupta | 21 September 2016–30 November 2016 |
Nishita Nirmal Mhatre (acting) | 1 December 2016–20 September 2017 |
Rakesh Tiwari (acting) | 20 September 2017– 24 October 2017 |
Jyotirmay Bhattacharya | 25 October 2017 – present |
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.[8] In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure.[9]
Gallery
- Centenary Building
- Inside the Calcutta High Court
References
- ↑ http://www.calcuttahighcourt.gov.in/Judges/CJ-and-Judges
- ↑ "The Hon'ble Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya, Chief Justice". Calcutta High Court. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
- ↑ Court's official website
- ↑ Change of name of Madras, Bombay and Calcutta HC
- ↑ Krishnan, Murali (2017-10-21). "Justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya appointed Acting Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court". Bar & Bench. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
- ↑ Ivermee, Robert. Secularism, Islam and Education in India, 1830–1910.
- ↑ James, Halen. "The Assassination of Lord Mayo : The "First" Jihad?" (PDF). IJAPS,Vol 5, No.2 (July 2009). Retrieved 18 November 2012.
- ↑ Court's official website
- ↑ HISTORICAL BACKGROUND. "CITY SESSIONS COURT, CALCUTTA". calcuttahighcourt.nic.in. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
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