Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located at Justice Radhabinod Pal Sarani, formerly Esplanade Row West, Kolkata (also scribed as Calcutta), 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,A Brief History about Calcutta High Court 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 (Alteration of Names) 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 (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 within 5 districts- Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.
Chief Justice and Judges The court has a Sanctioned strength of 72 (Permanent:54, Additional:18) judges.
Sitting Judges of Calcutta High Court
Currently, Justice Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge 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 #PortraitChief JusticeTerm 1 Sir Barnes Peacock1862–18702 Sir Richard Couch1870–18753 Sir Richard Garth1875–1886—Sir Romesh Chandra Mitra (acting)18864 Sir William Comer Petheram1886–18965 Sir Francis William Maclean1896–1909—Sir Chunder Madhub Ghose (acting)19066Sir Lawrence Hugh Jenkins 1909–19157 Sir Lancelot Sanderson 1915–1926—Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee (acting)1920, 19238 Sir George Claus Rankin1926–19349 Sir Harold Derbyshire 1934–194610 Sir Arthur Trevor Harries1946–1952After Indian Independence11 Phani Bhusan Chakravartti1952–195812 Kulada Charan Das Gupta1958–195913 Surajit Chandra Lahiri1959–196114 Himansu Kumar Bose1961–196615 Deep Narayan Sinha1966–197016 Prasanta Bihari Mukharji1970–197217 Sankar Prasad Mitra1972–197918 Amarendra Nath Sen1979–198119 Sambhu Chandra Ghose1981–198320 Samarendra Chandra DebJanuary 1983 – February 198321 Satish Chandra1983–198622 Anil Kumar SenSeptember 1986 – October 198623 Chittatosh Mookerjee1 November 1986 – 1 November 198724 Debi Singh Tewatia1 November 1987 – 198825 Prabodh Dinkarrao Desai1988–199126 Nagendra Prasad Singh4 February 1992 – 14 June 199227 Anandamoy Bhattacharjee1992–199428 Krishna Chandra Agarwal1994–199629 V. N. Khare2 February 1996 – 20 March 199730 Prabha Shankar Mishra1997–199831 Ashok Kumar Mathur22 December 1999 – 6 June 200432 V. S. Sirpurkar20 March 2005 – 11 January 200733 Surinder Singh Nijjar8 March 2007 – 16 November 200934 Mohit Shantilal Shah24 December 2009 – 25 June 201035 Jai Narayan Patel2010 – 4 October 201236 Arun Kumar Mishra14 December 2012 – 6 July 201437 Manjula Chellur5 August 2014 – 21 August 201638 Girish Chandra Gupta21 September 2016 – 30 November 201639 Jyotirmay Bhattacharya1 May 2018 – 24 September 201840 Debasish Kar Gupta30 October 2018 – 31 December 201841 Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan4 April 2019 — 28 April 202142 Prakash Shrivastava 11 October 2021 — 30 March 202343 T. S. Sivagnanam11 May 2023 — 15 September 202544 Sujoy Paul 16 January 2026 – 20 June 2026 45 Ravindra Vithalrao Ghuge 9 September 2026 – Incumbent
Judges elevated as Chief Justices
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.
Colour Key
Symbol Key Elevated to Supreme Court of India Resigned Died in office
NameImageAppointed as CJ in HC ofDate of appointmentDate of retirementTenureRef..As JudgeAs Chief JusticeAs Chief JusticeAs JudgeWalter MorganAllahabad, transferred to MadrasLawrence Hugh JenkinsBombay, transferred to CalcuttaJohn StanleyAllahabadGeorge Claus RankinCalcutta Sarat Kumar GhoshJammu & Kashmir, transferred to RajasthanRonald Francis LodgeGauhatiSudhi Ranjan DasPunjab & HaryanaPhani Bhusan ChakravarttiCalcutta Kulada Charan Das GuptaCalcuttaSurajit Chandra LahiriCalcuttaPrasanta Bihari MukharjiCalcuttaSubodh Ranjan Das GuptaKarnatakaHimansu Kumar BoseCalcuttaDeep Narayan SinhaCalcuttaSankar Prasad MitraCalcuttaAmarendra Nath SenCalcuttaSambhu Chandra GhoseCalcuttaSamarendra Chandra DebCalcuttaPradyot Kumar BanerjeeRajasthanAnil Kumar SenCalcuttaChittatosh MookerjeeCalcutta, transferred to BombayDipak Kumar SenPatnaRabindranath PyneDelhiBimal Chandra BasakPatnaGanendra Narayan RayGujaratManoj Kumar MukherjeeAllahabad, transferred to BombayMukul Gopal MukherjeeRajasthanUmesh Chandra BanerjeeAndhra PradeshNirendra Krishna MitraAllahabadShyamal Kumar SenAllahabadTarun ChatterjeeAllahabadAjoy Nath RayAllahabad, transferred to SikkimAltamas KabirJharkhandAsok Kumar GangulyOrissa, transferred to MadrasBarin GhoshJammu & Kashmir, transferred to Sikkim then to UttarakhandBhaskar BhattacharyaGujaratPinaki Chandra GhoseAndhra PradeshKalyan Jyoti SenguptaAndhra PradeshSubhro Kamal MukherjeeKarnatakaGirish Chandra GuptaCalcuttaIndira BanerjeeMadrasJyotirmay BhattacharyaCalcuttaAniruddha BoseJharkhandDebasish Kar GuptaCalcuttaBiswanath SomadderMeghalaya, transferred to SikkimDipankar DattaBombaySanjib BanerjeeMadras, transferred to MeghalayaIndra Prasanna MukerjiMeghalayaHarish TandonOrissaIncumbentSoumen SenMeghalaya, transferred to Kerala
Judges appointed as Acting Chief Justice NameAppointed as ACJ in HC ofDate of appointment as JudgePeriod as Acting Chief JusticeDate of retirementTenure as ACJTenure as JudgeRemarksRef..P. B. MukharjiCalcuttaBecame permanentS. MukharjiCalcuttaElevated to Supreme CourtTarun Kumar BasuCalcutta --Rabindranath PyneCalcuttaElevated as CJ of DelhiManashnath RoyCalcutta --Samir Kumar MookherjeeCalcuttaRetired as ACJSusanta ChatterjeeOrissa --Retired as ACJS. K. SenCalcuttaAppointed as Acting Governor of West Bengal --AllahabadBecame permanentA. N. RayCalcuttaElevated as CJ of AllahabadA. KabirCalcuttaElevated as CJ of JharkhandA. K. GangulyCalcutta --OrissaBecame permanentMalay SenguptaSikkim --Amitava LalaAllahabadRetired as ACJB. BhattacharyaCalcutta --GujaratBecame permanentP. C. GhoseAndhra PradeshK. J. SenguptaCalcuttaTransferred to UttarakhandPratap Kumar RayCalcutta --Ashim Kumar BanerjeeCalcuttaS. K. MukherjeeKarnatakaBecame permanentG. C. GuptaCalcuttaBecame permanentJ. M. BhattacharyaCalcuttaD. K. GuptaCalcuttaBiswanath SomadderCalcutta --Soumen SenCalcuttaIncumbentElevated as CJ of MeghalayaT. ChakrabortyCalcutta --Arindam SinhaOrissa
Judges elevated to Supreme Court This section includes the list of only those judges whose parent high court was Calcutta. This includes those judges who, at the time of elevation to Supreme Court of India, may not be serving in Calcutta High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of elevation were serving in Calcutta High Court but does not have Calcutta as their Parent High Court.
Colour Key
Key Resigned Died in office #Name of the JudgeImageDate of AppointmentDate of RetirementTenureImmediately preceding officeIn Parent High CourtIn Supreme CourtIn High Court(s)In Supreme CourtTotal tenure1Bijan Kumar MukherjeaJudge of Calcutta HC2Sudhi Ranjan Das2nd CJ of Punjab & Haryana HC3Amal Kumar SarkarJudge of Calcutta HC4Kulada Charan Das Gupta12th CJ of Calcutta HC5Ranadhir Singh BachawatJudge of Calcutta HC6Gopendra Krishna MitterJudge of Calcutta HC7Ajit Nath RayJudge of Calcutta HC8Arun Kumar MukherjeaJudge of Calcutta HC9Alak Chandra GuptaJudge of Calcutta HC10Amarendra Nath Sen18th CJ of Calcutta HC11Sabyasachi MukharjiActing CJ of Calcutta HC12Bankim Chandra RayJudge of Calcutta HC13Murari Mohan DuttJudge of Calcutta HC14Ganendra Narayan Ray11th CJ of Gujarat HC15Manoj Kumar Mukherjee27th CJ of Bombay HC16Suhas Chandra SenJudge of Calcutta HC17Umesh Chandra BanerjeeCJ of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh HC18Ruma PalJudge of Calcutta HC19Tarun Chatterjee38th CJ of Allahabad HC20Altamas Kabir3rd CJ of Jharkhand HC21Asok Kumar Ganguly34th CJ of Madras HC22Pinaki Chandra GhoseCJ of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh HC23Indira Banerjee39th CJ of Madras HC24Aniruddha Bose12th CJ of Jharkhand HC25Dipankar DattaIncumbent45th CJ of Bombay HC26Joymalya BagchiJudge of Calcutta HC
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. In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure.
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
External links
Official website Former official website (archived 6 March 2007) Judge strength in High Courts increased