Indian High Courts Act 1861

The Indian High Courts Act of 1861 (24 & 25 Vict. c. 104) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to authorize the Crown to create High Courts in the Indian colony. Queen Victoria created the High Courts in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay by Letters Patent in 1865. These High Courts would become the precursors to the High Courts in the modern day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. The Act was passed after the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and consolidated the parallel legal system of the Crown and the East India Company.

The Act abolished the Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay; the Sadar Diwani Adalat and the Sadar Nizamat Adalat at Calcutta; Sadar Adalat and Faujdari Adalat at Madras; Sadar Diwani Adalat and Faujdari Adalat at Bombay (§8).

Each High Court could consist of a chief justice and up to 15 judges. Under §3 of the Act, judges could be selected from barristers (with 5 years of experience), civil servants (with 10 years of experience including 3 years as a zillah judge), judges of small cause courts or sudder ameen (with 5 years of experience), or pleaders of sudder courts or High Courts (with 05 years of experience).

The High Court of a State is the highest court of the State and all other courts of the State work under it. Normally there is one High Court in every State but there can be only one High Court for two or more States as well, according to the constitution. There is one High Court at Chandigarh for Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh. Similarly there is one High Court at Guwahati which serves Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.

Composition:

In every High Court, there is a Chief Justice and many other judges whose number is defined by the President of India.

Appointment of the Judges: The Chief Justice of a High Court is appointed by the President with the consultation of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Governor of the State. The other judges are appointed by the will of President, Governor and the Chief Justice of High Court.

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