High courts of India explained

The high courts of India are the highest courts of appellate jurisdiction in each state and union territory of India. However, a high court exercises its original civil and criminal jurisdiction only if the subordinate courts are not authorized by law to try such matters for lack of peculiar or territorial jurisdiction. High courts may also enjoy original jurisdiction in certain matters, if so designated, especially[1] by the constitution, a state law or union law.

Court Name:High Courts Of India
Authority:Indian Constitution

The work of most high courts primarily consists of appeals from lower courts and writ petitions in terms of Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. Writ jurisdiction is also the original jurisdiction of a high court.

Each state is divided into judicial districts presided over by a district judge and a session judge. He is known as the district judge when he presides over a civil case and the session's judge when he presides over a criminal case. He is the highest judicial authority below a high court judge. Below him, there are courts of civil jurisdiction, known by different names in different states. Under Article 141 of the constitution, all courts in India, including high courts – are bound by the judgements and orders of the Supreme Court of India by precedence.

Judges in a high court are appointed by the president of India in consultation with the chief justice of India and the governor of the state under Article 217, Chapter Five of Part VI of the Constitution, but through subsequent judicial interpretations, the primacy of the appointment process is on the hands of the Judicial Collegium. High courts are headed by a chief justice. The chief justices rank fourteenth (within their respective states) and seventeenth (outside their respective states) on the Indian order of precedence. The number of judges in a court is decided by dividing the average institution of main cases during the last five years by the national average, or the average rate of disposal of main cases per judge per year in that high court, whichever is higher.

The Madras High Court is the oldest high court in the country, established on 26 June 1862. High courts that handle numerous cases of a particular region have permanent benches established there. Benches are also present in states which come under the jurisdiction of a court outside its territorial limits. Smaller states with few cases may have circuit benches established. Circuit benches (known as circuit courts in some parts of the world) are temporary courts which hold proceedings for a few selected months in a year. Thus cases built up during this interim period are judged when the circuit court is in session. According to a study conducted by Bangalore-based N.G.O, Daksh, on 21 high courts in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and Justice in March 2015, it was found that average pendency of a case in high courts in India is 3 years.[2]

The buildings of Bombay High Court (as part of the Victorian and art deco ensemble of Mumbai) and Punjab and Haryana High Court (as part of the architectural work of Le Corbusier) are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The high courts are substantially different from and should not be confused with the state courts of other federations, in that the Constitution of India includes detailed provisions for the uniform organisation and operation of all high courts.[3] In other federations like the United States, state courts are formed under the constitutions of the separate states and as a result vary greatly from state to state.

High courts

The Calcutta High Court in Kolkata (est. 1862), Bombay High Court in Mumbai (est. 1862), Madras High Court in Chennai (est. 1862), Allahabad High Court in Allahabad (est. 1866), and Bangalore High Court (now Karnataka High Court) in Bengaluru (est. 1884) are the five oldest high courts in India. The Andhra High Court and Telangana High Court are the newest high courts, established on 1 January 2019 according to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The following are the 25 high courts in India, sorted by name, year established, act by which it was established, jurisdiction, principal seat (headquarters), permanent benches (subordinate to the principal seat), circuit benches (functional a few days in a month/year), the maximum number of judges sanctioned, and the presiding chief justice of the high court:

scope=col scope=col Courtscope=col Establishedscope=col Actscope=col Jurisdictionscope=col Principal seatBench(es)scope=colgroup colspan="3" Judgesscope=col style="width:20%;" Chief justice
1scope=row Allahabad High Court[4] Indian High Courts Act 1861Uttar PradeshPrayagrajLucknow16011941Arun Bhansali
2scope=row Andhra Pradesh High Court[5] Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014Andhra PradeshAmaravati37289Dhiraj Singh Thakur
3scope=row Bombay High CourtIndian High Courts Act 1861Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, MaharashtraMumbaiAurangabad, Nagpur, Panaji947123Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya
4scope=row Calcutta High CourtIndian High Courts Act 1861Andaman and Nicobar Islands, West BengalKolkataPort Blair
Jalpaiguri		987828T. S. Sivagnanam
5scope=row Chhattisgarh High CourtMadhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000ChhattisgarhBilaspur22175Ramesh Sinha
6scope=row Delhi High Court[6] Delhi High Court Act, 1966DelhiNew Delhi604614Manmohan
(Acting)
7scope=row Gauhati High Court[7] Government of India Act 1935Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram, NagalandGuwahatiAizawl, Itanagar, Kohima30228Vijay Bishnoi
8scope=row Gujarat High CourtBombay Reorgansisation Act, 1960GujaratAhmedabad523913Sunita Agarwal
9scope=row Himachal Pradesh High CourtState of Himachal Pradesh Act, 1970Himachal PradeshShimla17134M. S. Ramachandra Rao
10scope=row Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court[8] [9] Letters Patent issued by then Maharaja of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019Jammu and Kashmir, LadakhSrinagar/Jammu17134N. Kotiswar Singh
11scope=row Jharkhand High CourtBihar Reorganisation Act, 2000JharkhandRanchi25205Shree Chandrashekhar
(Acting)
12scope=row Karnataka High Court[10] Mysore High Court Act, 1884KarnatakaBengaluruDharwad, Kalaburagi624715Nilay Vipinchandra Anjaria
13scope=row Kerala High Court[11] States Reorganisation Act, 1956Kerala, LakshadweepKochi473512Ashish Jitendra Desai
14scope=row Madhya Pradesh High Court[12] Government of India Act 1935Madhya PradeshJabalpurGwalior, Indore533914Sheel Nagu
(Acting)
15scope=row Madras High CourtIndian High Courts Act 1861Tamil Nadu, PuducherryChennaiMadurai755619R. Mahadevan
(Acting)
16scope=row Manipur High CourtNorth-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012ManipurImphal541Siddharth Mridul
17scope=row Meghalaya High CourtNorth-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012MeghalayaShillong431S. Vaidyanathan
18scope=row Orissa High Court[13] Orissa High Court Ordinance, 1948OdishaCuttack33249Chakradhari Sharan Singh
19scope=row Patna High CourtLetters Patent issued by then British CrownBiharPatna534013K. Vinod Chandran
20scope=row Punjab and Haryana High Court[14] Punjab High Court Ordinance, 1947Chandigarh, Haryana, PunjabChandigarh856421Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia
(Acting)
21scope=row Rajasthan High CourtRajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949RajasthanJodhpurJaipur503812Manindra Mohan Shrivastava
22scope=row Sikkim High CourtThe 36th Amendment to the Indian ConstitutionSikkimGangtok330Biswanath Somadder
23scope=row Telangana High Court[15] Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014TelanganaHyderabad423210Alok Aradhe
24scope=row Tripura High CourtNorth-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012TripuraAgartala541Aparesh Kumar Singh
25scope=row Uttarakhand High Court[16] Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000UttarakhandNainital1192Ritu Bahri
Total1114840274-

High courts by states/union territories

State/UTCourtPrincipal seatBench(es)
Andaman and Nicobar IslandsCalcutta High CourtPort Blair
Arunachal PradeshGauhati High CourtItanagar
Andhra PradeshAndhra Pradesh High CourtAmaravati
AssamGauhati High CourtGuwahati
BiharPatna High CourtPatna
ChandigarhPunjab and Haryana High CourtChandigarh
ChhattisgarhBilaspur
Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and DiuBombay High CourtMumbai
DelhiDelhi High CourtNew Delhi
GoaBombay High CourtPanaji
GujaratGujarat High CourtAhmedabad
HaryanaPunjab and Haryana High CourtChandigarh
Himachal PradeshHimachal Pradesh High CourtShimla
Jammu and KashmirJammu and Kashmir High CourtSrinagar/Jammu
JharkhandJharkhand High CourtRanchi
KarnatakaKarnataka High CourtBengaluruDharwad and Kalaburagi
KeralaKerala High CourtKochi
LadakhJammu and Kashmir High CourtSrinagar/Jammu
LakshadweepKerala High CourtKochi
Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh High CourtJabalpurGwalior and Indore
MaharashtraBombay High CourtMumbaiAurangabad and Nagpur
ManipurManipur High CourtImphal
MeghalayaMeghalaya High CourtShillong
MizoramGauhati High CourtAizawl
NagalandGauhati High CourtKohima
OdishaOrissa High CourtCuttack
PuducherryMadras High CourtChennai
PunjabPunjab and Haryana High CourtChandigarh
RajasthanRajasthan High CourtJodhpurJaipur
SikkimSikkim High CourtGangtok
Tamil NaduMadras High CourtChennaiMadurai
TelanganaTelangana High CourtHyderabad
TripuraTripura High CourtAgartala
Uttar PradeshAllahabad High CourtLucknow
UttarakhandUttaranchal High CourtNainital
West BengalCalcutta High CourtKolkataJalpaiguri

Courts under a high court

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Body league my presw Ho Chi Minh....., Engineering New Zealand (Organisation), issuing. EG.. 1015974760.
  2. News: HCs taking 3 years on average to decide cases: Study. Thakur. Pradeep. March 22, 2016. The Times of India. March 9, 2018. New Delhi. 23379369. 9 March 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20180309073006/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/HCs-taking-3-years-on-average-to-decide-cases-Study/articleshow/51503719.cms. live.
  3. Book: Pylee . M.V. . M. V. Pylee . India's Constitution . 2017 . S. Chand & Company Ltd. . New Delhi . 9789352531042 . 184 . 16th . 24 June 2023 . 14 November 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231114204124/https://books.google.com/books?id=yjJlDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA184 . live .
  4. Originally established at Agra, it shifted to Allahabad in 1875.
  5. Web site: High Court of Andhra Pradesh to function at Amaravati from Jan 1, 2019. 2018-12-26. Bar & Bench. 2018-12-27.
  6. [Lahore High Court]
  7. Originally known as the High Court of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Nagaland, it was renamed as Gauhati High Court in 1971.
  8. Originally, known as the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. But Jammu and Kashmir having been bifurcated into two union territories, since the reorganization of the state, the court was renamed as the High Court of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh in July 2021.
  9. News: New nomenclature for Jammu and Kashmir High Court . 7 December 2021 . The Hindu . 17 July 2021 . en-IN . 3 September 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210903143931/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/new-nomenclature-for-jammu-and-kashmir-high-court/article35377076.ece . live .
  10. Originally known as Mysore High Court, it was renamed as Karnataka High Court in 1974.
  11. The High Court of Travancore-Cochin was inaugurated at Kochi on 7 July 1949. The state of Kerala was formed by the States Reorganisation Act, 1956. That Act abolished the Travancore-Cochin High Court and created the Kerala High Court. The Act also extended the jurisdiction of the Kerala High Court to Lakshadweep.
  12. Under the Government of India Act 1935, a High Court was established at Nagpur for the Central Provinces by Letters Patent dated 2 January 1936. After the reorganization of states, this High Court was moved to Jabalpur in 1956.
  13. Though the State of Orissa was renamed Odisha in March 2011, the Orissa High Court retained its original name. There has been an ongoing discussion on how to legally change the nomenclature of the High Courts to reflect the renaming of states, but so far none has changed.
  14. Originally known as Punjab High Court, it was renamed as Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1966.
  15. Originally known as Andhra Pradesh High Court, and it was established on 5 November 1956 but it was renamed as High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad in 2014, renamed again as Telangana High Court on 20 April 1920.
  16. Originally known as Uttaranchal High Court, it was renamed as Uttarakhand High Court in 2007.

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