High Courts and Subordinate Courts

High Courts

The High Court is the top judicial body in a state (Articles 214–231, Part VI). The institution dates back to 1862, when High Courts were set up at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras under the Indian High Courts Act, 1861; the Allahabad High Court followed in 1866. The Constitution provides for a High Court for each state, but the 7th Amendment (1956) allows Parliament to establish a common High Court for two or more states and a UT. Today there are 25 High Courts. Common High Courts include the Bombay High Court (Maharashtra, Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu), the Gauhati High Court (Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh), the Punjab and Haryana High Court (Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh), the Madras High Court (Tamil Nadu and Puducherry), the Kerala High Court (Kerala and Lakshadweep), the Calcutta High Court (West Bengal and Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and the High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Delhi has had its own High Court since 1966. The newest High Courts are those of Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura (2013) and Andhra Pradesh (2019), after the Telangana High Court took over the Hyderabad seat.

Composition and appointment

Each High Court has a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President determines from time to time – the strength is fixed by the President, not by Parliament. Judges are appointed by the President:

• the Chief Justice after consulting the CJI and the Governor of the state;
• other judges after consulting the CJI, the Governor and the Chief Justice of the High Court concerned.

Under the collegium system, the High Court collegium (Chief Justice and two senior-most judges) initiates proposals, which are considered by the Supreme Court collegium (CJI and two senior-most judges for HC appointments). Chief Justices are normally appointed from outside the state (the policy of having outside Chief Justices).

Qualifications: citizen of India; 10 years in a judicial office in India, or 10 years as an advocate of a High Court. No minimum age; no "distinguished jurist" category (unlike the Supreme Court).

Tenure: until 62 years of age. Removal is in the same manner and on the same grounds as a Supreme Court judge. Transfers of judges between High Courts are made by the President after consulting the CJI (who consults the collegium). The President can appoint additional judges (for up to two years) and acting judges; a retired judge can be requested to sit as an ad hoc judge under Article 224A – the Supreme Court in Lok Prahari (2021) encouraged this to reduce pendency.

Jurisdiction and powers

1. Original jurisdiction – matters of admiralty, will, marriage, divorce, company law and contempt of court; disputes on elections of MPs and MLAs (election petitions are filed in the High Court); enforcement of Fundamental Rights.
2. Writ jurisdiction (Article 226) – for Fundamental Rights and for any other purpose, i.e. ordinary legal rights; this makes it wider than the Supreme Court's Article 32 jurisdiction.
3. Appellate jurisdiction – civil and criminal appeals from subordinate courts. In criminal cases, appeals lie from sessions court judgments where a sentence of more than seven years is imposed, and death sentences passed by sessions courts must be confirmed by the High Court before execution.
4. Supervisory jurisdiction (Article 227) – superintendence over all courts and tribunals in its territory (except military tribunals). It can call for returns, make rules and prescribe forms. This power is wider than its appellate power and can be exercised suo motu.
5. Control over subordinate courts (Articles 233–237) – consulted by the Governor in appointments of district judges; appointments, postings, promotions and leave of judicial officers below district judges; transfer of cases involving a substantial question of constitutional law to itself.
6. Court of record (Article 215) – can punish for contempt of itself.
7. Judicial review of state and central laws and executive orders on grounds of competence or violation of Fundamental Rights.

Subordinate courts

Articles 233–237 (Part VI) deal with subordinate courts.

Appointment of district judges (Article 233): by the Governor in consultation with the High Court. A person not already in service must have been an advocate or pleader for seven years and be recommended by the High Court. Other judicial officers are appointed by the Governor after consulting the State Public Service Commission and the High Court. Article 235 vests control over district courts and subordinate courts in the High Court.

Structure (typical, varying by state):

• District and Sessions Judge – the highest judicial authority in a district. Called the District Judge for civil cases and the Sessions Judge for criminal cases. The Sessions Judge can impose any sentence, including a death sentence, which must be confirmed by the High Court.
• Civil side: Sub-Judge / Civil Judge (Senior Division) and Munsiff / Civil Judge (Junior Division), with pecuniary limits.
• Criminal side: Chief Judicial Magistrate and Judicial Magistrates of the first and second class. (In metropolitan areas there were earlier Metropolitan Magistrates; the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the CrPC from 1 July 2024, removed the separate metropolitan designation.)
• Executive magistrates – District Magistrate, Sub-Divisional Magistrate – deal with maintenance of public order and preventive actions; they are under the executive, not the judiciary, reflecting Article 50's separation principle.
• Gram Nyayalayas under the Gram Nyayalayas Act, 2008 – mobile courts at the intermediate panchayat level to provide speedy justice in villages; implementation has been uneven.
• Family Courts (Family Courts Act, 1984), Fast Track Courts, special courts for the POCSO Act and the SC/ST Act, and Commercial Courts (Commercial Courts Act, 2015).

All India Judicial Service – Article 312 permits it (added by the 42nd Amendment), but it has not been created owing to differences among states and High Courts.

Pendency – the central problem

As per the National Judicial Data Grid, over five crore cases are pending across Indian courts, with the large majority (over four crore) in district and subordinate courts. Reasons include judge vacancies (India has about 21 judges per million population, far below the Law Commission's recommended 50 per million), frequent adjournments, government as the biggest litigant, poor infrastructure and procedural delays. Responses include the e-Courts Mission Mode Project (Phase III approved in 2023), virtual hearings, the National Judicial Data Grid, case management, fast-track courts, plea bargaining (since 2005), Lok Adalats and arbitration, and the National Litigation Policy idea of reducing government litigation.

Practice: Mains question

*"Justice delayed is justice denied." Suggest reforms to reduce pendency in the subordinate judiciary. (150 words)* Use the NJDG data, link vacancies and infrastructure to delays, and propose: filling vacancies with a time-bound process, an All India Judicial Service (with caveats), technology (e-Courts Phase III), limiting adjournments, strengthening ADR and Lok Adalats, specialised courts and reducing government litigation.

Common traps

• High Court judges retire at 62; Supreme Court judges at 65.
• The strength of a High Court is fixed by the President; of the Supreme Court by Parliament.
• Article 227 (superintendence) is a High Court power with no Supreme Court equivalent over High Courts.
• District judges are appointed by the Governor in consultation with the High Court.