Currently, the court has a sanctioned judge strength of 72.
History
Calcutta High Court in the 1860sCalcutta High Court in the 1890s
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 (Alteration 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.
The current Chief Justice of the court is Justice T. S. Sivagnanam. [6]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.
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.[2]
In 1977 another building named High Court Centenary Building or annexed building was inaugurated to reduce the pressure.[7]
