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Indian High Courts

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Indian High Courts

Indian High Courts

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Indian High Courts: Each state has a High Court. It is the highest judicial organ of the state. However, there can be a common high Court like Punjab. There are 24 High Courts at the state and union territory level of India, which together with the Supreme court of India at the national level, comprise judicial system.

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Each High Court has jurisdiction over a state, a union territory or a group of states and union territories. Below mentioned High Courts are a hierarchy of subordinate courts such as the civil courts, family courts, criminal courts and various other district courts. High Courts are instituted as constitutional courts under Part VI, Chapter V, Article 214 of the Indian Constitution.
The High Courts are the principal civil courts of original jurisdiction in each state and union territory. 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 pecuniary, territorial jurisdiction. High courts may also enjoy original jurisdiction in certain matters if so designated specifically in a state or federal law. Consists of chief justice & other such judge as appointed by the president.
The Constitution, unlike in the case of the Supreme Court, does not fix any maximum number of a judge for a High Court (Allahabad High Court has 37 Judges while J& K High Court has only 5). A Judge of a high court be transferred to another High Court without his consent by the president. In this, the chief justice of India is also consulted. The opinion provided by him shall have primacy and is binding on the president. However, the work of most High Courts primarily consists of appeals from lower courts and writ petitions in terms of Article 226 of the constitution. Write jurisdiction is also the original jurisdiction of High Court. The precise territorial jurisdiction of each High Court varies. The appeal order is the following: tehsil-kotwali-criminal/civil courts-district-high court-Supreme Court.
Here is a list of High Courts in India with their establishment year and working region.
Name Establishment year Territorial Jurisdiction Seat
Bombay 1862 Maharastra, Dadar, & Nagar Haveli. Goa,Daman Diu
Kolkata 1862 West Bengal, Andman & Nicobar Islands Kolkata (Bench of port Blair)
Madras 1862 Tamil Nadu & Pondicherry Chennai
Allahabad 1866 Utter Pradesh Allahabad (Bench at Lucknow)
Karnataka 1884 Karnataka Bangalore
Patna 1916 Bihar Patna
Jammu&Kashmir 1928 Jammu&Kashmir Sri Nagar & Jammu
Guwahati 1948 Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh Guwahati (Bench at Kohima
Orissa 1948 Orissa Cuttack
Rajasthan 1949 Rajasthan Jodhpur (Bench–Jaipur)
Andhra Pradesh 1954 Andhra Pradesh Hyderabad
Madhya Pradesh 1956 Madhya Pradesh Jabalpur (Bench–Indore,Gwalior)
Kerala 1958 Kerala & Lakshadweep Ernakulam
Gujarat 1960 Gujarat Ahmedabad
Delhi 1966 Delhi Delhi
Himachal Pradesh 1966 Himachal Pradesh Shimla
Punjab&Haryana 1975 Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh Chandigarh
Sikkim 1975 Sikkim Gangtok
Chhattisgarh 2000 Chhattisgarh Bilaspur
Uttarakhand 2000 Uttarakhand Nainital
Jharkhand 2000 Jharkhand Ranchi
Tripura 2013 Tripura Agartala
Manipur 2013 Manipur Imphal
Meghalaya 2013 Meghalaya Shillong