Proclamation made by the Governor-General of India on the 22nd March, 1912 the territories of Bihar and Orissa which were formerly subject to and included within the limits of the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal, were promoted to the status of a separate province, and by Letters Patent, dated the 9th February, 1916 the Patna High Court was ushered into existence with Circuit sittings at Cuttack, and form the 26th February, 1916, the date on which the aforesaid Letters Patent was published in the Gazette of India, the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal ceased to exercise jurisdiction, Civil, Criminal, Admiralty, Matrimonial, Testamentary and Intestate, Enrolment, etc. in all matters in which jurisdiction was given to the High Court of Judicature at Patna. Thus the ancient city of Pataliputra had a High Court of its own in 1916 with Sir Edward Maynard Des Champs Chamier, Kt. Barrister-at-Law as its first Chief Justice and Sarvashri Saiyid Sharfuddin, Barrister-at-Law, Edmund Pelly Chapman, I.C.S., Basant Kumar Mullick, I.C.S., Francis, Reginald Roe, I.C.S, Cecil Atkinson, barrister-at-Law and Jwala Prasad, B.A., LL.B., as Puisne Judges.