Hierarchy of Courts and Justice System in India!

This court is comprised of the Chief Justice along with 30 other judgesto carry on the operation of the court. The action of the Supreme Court is being heard only in the language of English.  The Supreme Court is governed by the Supreme Court Rules which was published in the year 1966.

The same had been fixed under Article 145 of the Constitution of India to ensure the regulation of procedures and practices of the Supreme Court.  This article is passing through the process of upgrading with the presently enforced Article as per the Supreme Court Rules, 2013.

High Courts are second Courts of Importance of the democracy of India.They are run by Article 141 of the Constitution of India. They are governed by the bindings conferred by the Supreme Court of India so far judgments and orders are concerned. The Supreme Court of India is the highest level of courts and is responsible for fixing the guidance to the High Courts set by precedence.

High courts are the types of courts which are instituted as the courts powered by constitution with the effect of Article 214 Part IV Chapter V of the Indian Constitution. There are 24 high courts in India taking care of the regional juridical system of India out of which Kolkata High Court is the oldest.

These courts are primarily confined to the jurisdiction of state, group of states or Union Territory. They are being empowered to govern the jurisdiction of lower courts like family, civil and criminal courts with other different courts of the districts.  These courts are of the statute of principal civil courts so far creativity of jurisdiction is concerned in the related domain of the states and the other district courts.

These courts are treated as subordinate to High Courts by status. But High Courts are mainly exercising their jurisdiction related to civil or criminal domain if the cheaper courts are proved incapable of exercising their power as per authorization extended by law.  These situations may be generated through the inadequacy of financial or territorial jurisdiction. There are specific areas in which only High Courts can exercise the right for hearing like cases related to Company Law as it is designated specially in a state or federal law.

But usually, the high courts are involved in the appeals raised in the cases of lower courts with the writ petitions as conferred in Article 226 of the Constitution of India. The area of writ petitions is also the sole jurisdiction of high courts. The jurisdiction of High Court is changing so far territorial jurisdiction is considered.

The appointment of the judges of High Courts are being executed by the President of India with the consultation of the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of HC and the Governor of the state or union territory.

Decision on the number of judges in High Court is mainly dictated considering the higher number of either the average of organization of main cases for the last years as per the average nationally calculated or the average rate of main cases disposed per judge per year in the respective high court.

The high courts with handling of most of the cases of a particular area are provided with the facility of permanent benches or branches of the court situated there only. To serve the complainants of remote regions the establishment of circuit benches had been made to facilitate the service with the schedule of operation as per the occurrence of visit of the judge.

The basis of structuring of district courts in India is mainly depending upon the discretion of the state governments or the union territories.The structure of those courts are mainly made considering several factors like the number of cases, distribution of population, etc. Depending upon those factors the state government takes the decision of numbers of District Courts to be in operation for single district or clubbing together different adjacent districts.

Normally these types of courts exercise their power of juridical service in district level. These courts are covered by the administrative power of the High Courts under which the district courts are covered. The judgments of the district courts are subject to review to the appellate jurisdiction of the respective high court.

The district courts are mainly run by the state government appointed district judges. There are additional district judges and assistant district judges who are there to share the additional load of the proceedings of District Courts. These additional district judges have equal power like the district judges for the jurisdiction area of any city which has got the status of the metropolitan area as conferred by the state government. These district courts have the additional jurisdictional authority of appeal handling over the subordinate courts which are there in the same district specifically in the domain of civil and criminal affairs.

The subordinate courts covering the civil cases, in this aspect are considered as Junior Civil Judge Court, Principal Junior and Senior Civil Judge Court, which are also known as Sub Courts, Subordinate Courts. All these courts are treated with ascending orders. The subordinate courts covering the criminal cases are Second Class Judicial Magistrate Court, First Class Judicial Magistrate Court, and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court along with family courts which are found to deal with the issues related to disputes of matrimonial issues only. The status of Principal Judge of family court is at par with the District Judge.

There are in total 351 district courts in operation out of which 342 are of states while 9 are of union territories.

The village courts are named as Lok Adalat or Nyaya Panchyat which means the service of justice extended to the villagers of India. This is the system for resolving disputes in micro level. The need of these courts is justified though the Madras Village Court Act of 1888. This act is followed by the development post 1935 in different provinces, which are re-termed as distinguish states after the independence of 1947.

This conceptual model had been started to be sued from the state of Gujarat consisting of a judge and two assessors since 1970s. The Law Commission had recommended in 1984 to form the Nyaya Panchayats in the rural areas with the people of educational attainment.  The latest development had been observed in 2008 through initiation of Gram Nyaylayas Act which had sponsored the concept of installation of 5000 mobile courts throughout the country. These courts are assigned to judge the petty cases related to the civil and criminal offence which can generate the penalty of up to 2 years imprisonment.

So far the available statistics of 2012 there are only 151 Gram Nyaylayas which are functional in this big country which is far below the targeted figures of 5000 mobile courts.  While trying to find the basic reasons for this non achievement, it was found as financial constraints followed by shown reluctance by the lawyers, respective government officials and police.

The judges of the Supreme Court are being appointed by the President of India. The system is to send the panel of probable judges by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court through collegiums to the President of India with the approval of the Central Government.

The qualifications and the conditions of the judges so far appointment and the tenure of service are fixed as per below:

• He should be the citizen of India.
• He should have the experience of serving as the Judge of High Court for a minimum period of at least five years or he should be an advocate of High Court for at least ten years or he should be considered by the President as a distinctive jurist.
• The Judge of the Supreme Court is eligible for performing his duties by holding office up to the age of sixty five year if he has not resigned or disqualified on the basis of any act of misbehavior or proving incapable of holding his duties.

The jurisdiction of the SC is classified under different types:

The High Courts- Its role in the judicial system

The Constitution conferred that each state or more than one state should have one High Court. The Union Territories of Manipur, Goa and Tripura have the judicial Commissioner Courts. The Constitution has made provision for the other Union Territories to establish high courts.

All the High Courts have the power to pronounce punishment for contempt of court and thus, they will be treated as Court of Record.

The appointment of the Judges of High Court is done by the President of India with the consultation of the Chief Justice of India, the Chief Justice of respective high Court and the Governor of the state.

The President of India has the authority to fix the number of judges of the High Court as per requirement. The basic factor for this purpose is being settled though the central executive which can decide about the number of judges in High Court which is being decided with a flexible attitude.

A person, being the citizen of India with holding the judicial office in India for 10 years or an advocate of High Court for 10 years is eligible for being the Judge of High Court.

The judges of the High Court have the maximum period of service up to sixty two years. Till then they can not be removed from their duties if any occurrence of misbehavior or incapability is proved and seconded by two third of members of both houses of parliament through voting.

This is done as per prescribed declaration in the second schedule of the Constitution and can not be changed without any amendment of the Constitution.

The old molded restriction since 1915 regarding revenue is being outdated on the original jurisdiction of the High Courts of Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai.

Except for High Courts of Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, none has the power to issue the privileged writs. At present Article 226 of the Constitution of India has given the power to the high Courts to issue different writs.

Article 227 of Indian Constitution has empowered all high courts to practice superintendence over all the courts of tribunal effective within the regional jurisdiction of the High Court.