The     High   Court   at  Calcutta, formerly    known  as   the High Court of Judicature at Fort William, was brought into existence by the Letters Patent dated 14^th May, 1862, issued under the High Court's Act, 1861.The High Court of Judicature at Fort William was formally opened on 1^st July, 1862, with Sir Barnes Peacock as its first Chief    Justice.  Appointed   on   2^nd   February, 1863, Justice Sumboo Nath Pandit was the first Indian to assume office as a Judge of the Calcutta High Court, followed by legal luminaries  such as Justice D. N. Mitter, Justice R.C Mitter, Sir Chunder Madhab Ghosh, Sir Gooroodas Banerji, Sir Ashutosh Mookerjee and Justice P.B. Chakravartti, whose judgments are still revered.

The Calcutta High Court has the distinction of being the first High Court and one of the three Chartered High Courts to be set up in India. It is the oldest High Court in India.

The seat of the High Court is Kolkata, capital of West Bengal. It also has a permanent Circuit Bench in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The court has sanctioned judge strength of 58.

Countless Court officers and litigants flock the magnificent court premises every working day of this great institution. However, the said Court, unlike most of the Courts of a similar stature in India, fails to imbibe the latest technological advancements introduced in our justice delivery system.

NIC is a Premier Information Technology Organisation in India ostensibly providing “state of art Solutions” for information management and decision Support in Government and Corporate Sector. A number of Services are being provided by NIC to all the Government Ministries/Departments/States/Districts. NIC has created the websites of various courts across the country including that of the Calcutta High Court.

A plain comparison of the official websites of the Delhi High Court and the Calcutta High Court would show the number of services which are not available in the hallowed Chartered High Court of Calcutta .

 The website of the Calcutta High Court (http://calcuttahighcourt.nic.in/) does not inform the common litigant of the following:

The roster of the judges and the various determinations

It does not have a display board which informs both the advocate and the litigants regarding the Board as it moves in Court.

NIC, on the website of the Calcutta High Court, states inter alia its activities and the impact it seeks to create:

“List of Business Information System (LOBIS): It is about scheduling of cases to be heard by the courts on the following day. It enabled the Registries of Supreme Court and High Courts in eliminating manual process of Cause List generation thus any manipulation by vested interests. These databases contain details of fresh cases, disposed and pending cases. It is the backbone application of every Court.

Impact :

1. As Cause Lists are generated automatically by the computer manual intervention has been eliminated resulting in generation of Cause List in time with out any hassle
2. Cases are listed strictly in chronological order of date of filing; eliminated irregularities
3. All cases having the same law point(s) to be decided by the courts are bunched/grouped and posted before one bench. This has helped the courts in faster disposal of cases.
4. It has become simpler to recall dismissed cases when review petitions are filed.
5. On the spot reliable and instantaneous statistical reports are generated “

Curiously, the Calcutta High Court website fails to provide the Causelist for the Appellate Side. It only provides the Cause list for the Original side. Considering the limited Original jurisdiction of the Calcutta High Court, the website completely fails to reach out to the majority of the litigants of this Court. Similarly, the case status for the Appellate Side is also not provided. Unlike the Delhi High Court website, there is no provision for “judgewise orders/judgements” where one can find out the judgment and read its content when he either knows the name of the judge who passed the order and the date on which it was passed. Similarly, the judgments are not available in PDF format. The website is conspicuous by the absence of the facility to track applications for certified copies of the Court’s orders. The said department continues to languish in the age old system of corrupt monetary exchange and other irritating and disparaging motions of red tapism.

 As a common litigant and an officer of the Court having a pan India practice, it becomes extremely difficult to track cases listed in the Appellate side of the Calcutta High Court, procure orders , apply for certified copies, inform my Client as to the name of the Judge likely to hear a fresh matter, track matters and the next date of hearing together with orders.
I am confident that the said website does not convenience a vast number of advocates practising on the Appellate Side and even the Advocates on the Original Side who are not as privileged as their Delhi High Court counterparts. Considering that this noble profession in time has turned into a major service sector/industry with globalization, rise in international trade  and when we are debating only on the timing of entry and practice guidelines of  foreign law firms and not whether they should be allowed to practice law or not, the Calcutta High Court website fails to cater to provide the basic information to the majority of its Litigants and officers of its own Court.