The High Courts of India: Structure, Powers and Role

The High Courts of India are the highest courts at the state level, sitting directly below the Supreme Court and above the district and subordinate courts. Created by the Constitution and rooted in a judicial tradition that goes back to the 1860s, they hear everything from routine civil appeals to petitions against the actions of the government itself.

For ordinary citizens, a High Court is often the most practical forum for justice. It is nearer than New Delhi, its writ powers reach beyond fundamental rights, and its orders can reverse a lower court, strike down an unlawful state action or protect a person’s liberty overnight. This guide explains how the High Courts are structured, who sits on them, what they can do and why they matter.

Where the High Courts Fit in India’s Judicial System

India has a single, integrated judiciary rather than separate federal and state court systems. At the top stands the Supreme Court; beneath it are the High Courts of India, one for each state or group of states; and below them are the district courts and a wide range of subordinate courts and tribunals. A case can travel up this ladder through appeals, but the High Court is usually where most significant legal disputes finally get settled.

The Constitution deals with these courts in Chapter V of Part VI, covering Articles 214 to 231. Article 214 declares that there shall be a High Court for each state. Later articles describe how judges are appointed, how long they serve, what jurisdiction the courts hold, and how Parliament may create a common High Court for two or more states. Although the courts function in the states, they are not controlled by state governments; their independence is protected by the Constitution itself.

How Many High Courts Are There?

There are 25 High Courts in India today. The number is smaller than the number of states and Union Territories because several courts serve more than one unit. Article 231 allows Parliament to establish a common High Court for two or more states, or for a state and a Union Territory.

Courts with wider territorial jurisdiction

• The Bombay High Court covers Maharashtra, Goa and the Union Territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu.
• The Calcutta High Court covers West Bengal and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• The Madras High Court covers Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
• The Punjab and Haryana High Court, at Chandigarh, serves both states and the Union Territory of Chandigarh.
• The Gauhati High Court covers Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh.
• The Kerala High Court also covers Lakshadweep.
• The Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court serves both Union Territories.

A growing family

The family has grown with state reorganisation. Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura received their own High Courts in 2013, and a separate Andhra Pradesh High Court began functioning in 2019 after the earlier court was split to serve Andhra Pradesh and Telangana separately. Delhi, as a Union Territory, has its own High Court, which Parliament has long recognised by law.

Colonial Roots: The Oldest High Courts

The modern High Court system began with the Indian High Courts Act of 1861, passed by the British Parliament. It allowed the Crown to merge the older Supreme Courts, which served the presidency towns, with the Sadar Adalats, the appellate courts of the East India Company. Under letters patent issued in 1862, the High Courts at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras came into being, and they remain the three oldest High Courts in the country.

Other courts followed as the British administration expanded, and many became the models for the courts of independent India. After 1950, the Constitution absorbed these institutions and gave them a new identity as constitutional courts. In 2016, Parliament changed the official names of the Calcutta, Bombay and Madras courts to reflect Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai, though the older names continue to be widely used in legal and everyday language.

Composition, Appointment and Tenure of Judges

Each High Court consists of a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President may from time to time decide is necessary. Article 216 leaves the exact number open, which means the size of each court is not fixed in the Constitution. It depends mainly on the volume of litigation and the population served. Busy courts such as Allahabad, the largest in the country, have far more judges than small courts in the north-east.

Permanent, additional and acting judges

Judges can be appointed on different terms. Most begin as additional judges for a period of up to two years under Article 224 and are later confirmed as permanent judges. The same article allows the appointment of acting judges when a permanent judge is absent or temporarily unable to function. Under Article 224A, a retired High Court judge can also be requested to sit and hear cases as an ad hoc judge, which is one tool used to reduce arrears.

The Chief Justice

The Chief Justice is the administrative head of the court. The Chief Justice decides how cases are allocated to benches, supervises the court’s staff and, in practice, acts as the first among equals. The seniority of the other judges is calculated from the date on which they took their oath.

Appointment and the collegium system

Under Article 217, a High Court judge is appointed by the President. The Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the state and, for judges other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of the High Court must be consulted. In practice, this consultation has been shaped by the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Judges Cases of 1981, 1993 and 1998, which established the collegium system.

For High Court judges, the process usually begins with a recommendation from the High Court collegium, made up of the Chief Justice and the two senior-most judges. The proposal then travels to the Supreme Court collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India, and finally to the government, which processes it before the formal appointment. Chief Justices of High Courts are recommended by the Supreme Court collegium. In 2014, Parliament tried to replace the collegium with a National Judicial Appointments Commission, but the Supreme Court struck down the constitutional amendment in 2015, and the collegium continues.

Qualifications for a High Court judge

• The person must be a citizen of India.
• The person must have held a judicial office in India for at least ten years, or
• The person must have been an advocate of one or more High Courts for at least ten years.

Tenure, retirement and removal

A High Court judge holds office until the age of 62. This was raised from 60 by the Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act, 1963, while Supreme Court judges retire at 65. A judge may resign earlier by writing to the President.

Judicial independence is protected in several ways. A judge can be removed only in the same way as a Supreme Court judge: Parliament must pass an address in each House, supported by a special majority, on the grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity. The process has been started only rarely, which shows how difficult the removal is. Salaries are fixed by law and cannot be reduced to the judge’s disadvantage during tenure, other than during a financial emergency. Article 220 also bars a permanent judge, after retirement, from pleading in any court other than the Supreme Court and other High Courts, so that a retired judge cannot practise before the courts that were once under the judge’s authority.

Transfers

Article 222 empowers the President, after consulting the Chief Justice of India, to transfer a judge from one High Court to another. Transfers are used to improve administration, to strengthen courts that need judges, and to ensure a healthy mix of experience across the country. In practice, transfers are also decided through the Supreme Court collegium.

Original and Appellate Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of the High Courts of India falls broadly into original, appellate, writ and supervisory categories. Article 225 preserves the powers that existing courts held before the Constitution came into force, subject to later legislation.

Original jurisdiction

Under the original jurisdiction, a case begins directly in the High Court instead of a lower court. This covers matters such as election petitions arising from elections to Parliament and the state legislatures, certain matters of marriage, probate and company law, admiralty cases and contempt of court. The High Courts at some older centres, including Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Delhi, also hear high-value civil suits at the first instance, depending on monetary limits set by law.

Appellate jurisdiction

Most of a High Court’s work comes through appeals.

• Civil appeals: First appeals from decrees of district courts and, in prescribed cases, second appeals on a substantial question of law.
• Criminal appeals: Appeals against convictions and sentences handed down by sessions courts. A death sentence passed by a sessions court must be confirmed by the High Court before it can be carried out.
• Tribunal and statutory appeals: Appeals from certain tribunals and under special laws.

Above all of this, the Supreme Court may hear appeals from High Court judgments, either as of right in specified cases or by special leave under Article 136.

Writ Jurisdiction under Article 226

The most distinctive power of the High Courts is the writ jurisdiction in Article 226. It allows a High Court to issue directions, orders or writs, including habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, certiorari and quo warranto, to any person or authority, including the government, within its territories. A person may approach it either for the enforcement of fundamental rights or “for any other purpose”.

The five writs

• Habeas corpus: Directs that a detained person be produced before the court so that the legality of the detention can be examined.
• Mandamus: Commands a public authority to perform a public duty it has failed to perform.
• Prohibition: Stops a lower court or tribunal from exceeding its jurisdiction.
• Certiorari: Quashes an order passed by a lower court, tribunal or authority that acted without jurisdiction or contrary to law.
• Quo warranto: Challenges a person’s right to hold a public office.

Article 226 versus Article 32

Because the phrase “any other purpose” covers ordinary legal rights, the High Court’s writ power is wider than that of the Supreme Court under Article 32, which is limited to fundamental rights. Article 32 is itself a fundamental right, which Dr B.R. Ambedkar described as the heart and soul of the Constitution. A High Court, by contrast, exercises its writ power as a matter of discretion.

Superintendence and the Court of Record

Article 227 gives each High Court the power of superintendence over all courts and tribunals within its territorial jurisdiction, except those established under laws relating to the armed forces. The High Court may call for returns, make rules of practice and procedure, and prescribe forms for the proper working of the lower courts. This supervisory power is meant to keep subordinate courts within the limits of their authority, rather than serve as a general second appeal.

Article 235 adds an administrative dimension: the High Court controls the district judiciary, including posting, promotion and discipline of judicial officers below the rank of district judge, and Article 233 requires that district judges be appointed by the Governor in consultation with the High Court.

A court of record

Article 215 declares every High Court a court of record. This means its proceedings and judgments are preserved as permanent evidence and their authenticity cannot be questioned when cited in other courts. It also means the court has the power to punish contempt of itself. Court of record status adds to the authority and dignity of the High Courts and makes their judgments a source of precedent.

The Hierarchy Below: District and Subordinate Courts

Below the High Court sits the district judiciary, which is the first point of contact for most litigants. The district court is headed by the District and Sessions Judge, who hears civil matters as District Judge and criminal matters as Sessions Judge. Subordinate civil courts, such as the courts of civil judges, and criminal courts, including those of magistrates, work under this judge.

• District and Sessions Courts: Hear serious civil and criminal cases and appeals from lower courts.
• Civil courts: Deal with property, contract and family disputes at the lower levels.
• Magistrate courts: Try less serious offences and handle bail, remand and preliminary matters.
• Family courts, Lok Adalats and Gram Nyayalayas: Specialised or alternative forums created by law to resolve disputes more quickly.

Appeals from these courts go up to the High Court, and the High Court’s directions on law bind them. A High Court judgment also serves as a precedent within its own territory, while remaining persuasive in other states. Only the Supreme Court’s decisions bind every court in the country under Article 141.

Judicial Review, PILs and Protecting Rights

The High Courts perform judicial review at the state level. They can examine whether a state law, a government order or an executive action conforms to the Constitution, and strike it down if it does not. They can also review central laws that affect people in their territory, subject to the Supreme Court’s final say. The Supreme Court has held that the High Courts’ power of judicial review is part of the basic structure of the Constitution, and tribunals’ decisions remain open to scrutiny by the High Courts.

Public interest litigation

Since the late 1970s, courts have relaxed the traditional rule that only the aggrieved person can approach them. Through public interest litigation (PIL), a concerned citizen or organisation can petition on behalf of people who cannot easily reach a court. High Courts have heard PILs on pollution, the condition of prisons and hospitals, heritage protection, the rights of workers and the treatment of vulnerable groups. Because High Courts are closer to local realities, many PILs begin here before reaching the Supreme Court.

Protecting liberty

Habeas corpus petitions, bail-related remedies and challenges to unlawful police action routinely reach the High Courts. This everyday protection of personal liberty is one of the most valuable functions that these institutions perform.

Benches, Circuit Benches and Access to Justice

A High Court has a principal seat, but a state may be large, and travelling to the capital can be expensive for litigants. To bring justice closer, many High Courts have permanent benches or circuit benches at other locations. A permanent bench functions throughout the year, while a circuit bench sits at a particular place for specified periods.

• The Allahabad High Court has a permanent bench at Lucknow.
• The Bombay High Court has benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad (now Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar) and Panaji.
• The Madras High Court has a bench at Madurai.
• The Madhya Pradesh High Court has benches at Indore and Gwalior.
• The Gauhati High Court has benches at places such as Kohima, Aizawl and Itanagar.

Setting up a new bench, or changing a court’s seat, is governed by law and requires the President’s approval after consulting the Governor and the Chief Justice; the demand often comes from local bar associations and residents. Technology has also expanded access: video-conferencing, e-filing and online case status tools now allow lawyers and litigants to take part in hearings without travelling to the court.

Pendency, Vacancies and Other Challenges

Despite their importance, the High Courts face serious strains. The most widely discussed problem is pendency: millions of cases are pending in courts across the country, and a large share are in the High Courts, where some appeals wait for many years. Several causes combine to produce this backlog.

• Vacancies: Many courts work with fewer judges than their sanctioned strength because appointments take time.
• Heavy litigation: Government itself is among the largest litigants, and many cases involve service matters, land and tenancy disputes.
• Procedural delays: Repeated adjournments and long hearings slow down disposals.
• Infrastructure: Court buildings, staff and technology vary widely between states.

Efforts to address these issues include appointing ad hoc judges under Article 224A, expanding e-courts and the National Judicial Data Grid, promoting mediation and Lok Adalats, and fast-tracking old cases. Language is another issue: English is the language of the High Courts, although a state’s Governor can, with the President’s consent, authorise Hindi or another language for use in a High Court.

Even so, the High Courts of India remain central to India’s constitutional democracy. By interpreting laws, checking executive power and guarding individual rights, they translate the promises of the Constitution into everyday justice.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many High Courts are there in India?

There are 25 High Courts in India. Some of them serve more than one state or Union Territory, such as the Bombay High Court (Maharashtra, Goa and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu) and the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Which are the oldest High Courts in India?

The Calcutta, Bombay and Madras High Courts, all established in 1862 under the Indian High Courts Act of 1861, are the three oldest. The Allahabad High Court followed in 1866.

How are High Court judges appointed and when do they retire?

High Court judges are appointed by the President under Article 217 after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor and the Chief Justice of the High Court. In practice, the Supreme Court’s collegium system decides the recommendations. They retire at the age of 62.

What is the difference between Article 226 and Article 32?

Article 32 lets a person approach the Supreme Court only for the enforcement of fundamental rights. Article 226 lets a person approach a High Court for fundamental rights as well as for any other legal purpose, which makes the High Court’s writ power wider.

What is a court of record?

A court of record is one whose proceedings and judgments are preserved as permanent evidence and which has the power to punish for contempt of itself. Article 215 gives this status to every High Court, and Article 129 gives it to the Supreme Court.

Does a High Court control the district courts?

Yes. Under Article 227, a High Court has the power of superintendence over all courts and tribunals in its territory, and under Article 235 it controls the district judiciary, including postings, promotions and discipline of judicial officers. It also hears appeals from the district courts.

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