Kolkata: Decks have been cleared for Kolkata’s oldest school hostel to be converted into a law college.
The 237-year-old hostel building at St Thomas’ School in Kidderpore will now house a law college, offering a five-year BA LLB programme. The Kolkata Diocese of the Church of North India (CNI) decided in 2021 to set up this law institute, to be named ‘Bishop Canning Law College’.
“The approval (for the law college) has come from the Bar Council of India and the college will be inaugurated on Nov 5 on the Kidderpore campus,” Bishop Paritosh Canning said at St Paul’s Cathedral on Monday.
St Thomas’ School, considered the oldest functioning school in the city, was founded in 1789 for community children. The institute, located on Diamond Harbour Road in Kidderpore, not only admitted British day scholars but also provided hostel facilities to children coming from outside Kolkata. The heritage hostel, which had housed generations of students—mostly from Anglo-Indian as well as underprivileged background—has now shifted its boarders to other hostels to pave the way for the law college.