Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India, with its seat in Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and it runs circuit benches at Port Blair and Jalpaiguri. It was created as the High Court of Judicature at Fort William by Letters Patent of 14 May 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861, replacing the earlier Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William, and it opened on 1 July 1862. Its Gothic Revival building, completed in 1872 to a design by Walter Long Bozzi Granville, was loosely modelled on the Ypres Cloth Hall in Belgium. Sir Barnes Peacock was its first Chief Justice, and the court kept its old name after the city was renamed Kolkata in 2001. Its sanctioned strength is 72 judges.