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Madras High Court

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The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is one of the oldest high courts of India along with Calcutta High Court in Kolkata[1][2][3] and Bombay High Court in Mumbai. The Madras High Court is one of four charter high courts of colonial India established in the four Presidency Towns of Madras, Bombay, Allahabad and Calcutta by letters patent granted by Queen Victoria, dated 26 June 1862. It exercises original jurisdiction over the city of Chennai, as well as extraordinary original jurisdiction, civil and criminal, under the letters patent and special original jurisdiction for the issue of writs under the Constitution of India.[4][5] Covering 107 acres, the court complex is one of the largest in the world, second only to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The four-storey administrative building attracts hundreds of litigants every day.

Madras High Court
Madras High Court Building
Map
13°05′12.8″N 80°17′16.4″E / 13.086889°N 80.287889°E / 13.086889; 80.287889
Established26 June 1862; 162 years ago (1862-06-26)
JurisdictionTamil Nadu and Puducherry
LocationPrincipal bench
Additional bench
Coordinates13°05′12.8″N 80°17′16.4″E / 13.086889°N 80.287889°E / 13.086889; 80.287889
MottoSatyameva Jayate
Composition methodPresidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state
Authorised byConstitution of India
Appeals toSupreme Court of India
Appeals fromSubordinate Courts of Tamil Nadu
Judge term lengthMandatory retirement at age 62
Number of positions75
(Permanent 56; Addl. 19)
LanguageEnglish, Tamil
Websitehcmadras.tn.gov.in
Chief Justice
CurrentlyShriram Kalpathi Rajendran
Since27 September 2024

The High Court consists of the Chief Justice and 74 other judges.[5][6]

History

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From 1817 to 1862, the Supreme Court of Madras was opposite the Chennai Beach railway station. From 1862 to 1892, the High Court was also housed there. The present buildings were officially inaugurated on 12 July 1892, when the then Madras Governor, Beilby, Baron Wenlock, handed over the key to then Chief Justice Sir Arthur Collins.[7]

 
The statue of Manuneedhi Cholan in the Madras High Court premises

British India's three presidency towns of Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and Calcutta (Kolkata) were each granted a High Court by letters patent dated 26 June 1862.[8] The letters patent were issued by Queen Victoria under the authority of the British parliament's Indian High Courts Act 1861. The three courts are unique, established under British royal charter in contrast with the other high courts, which were established under the Indian Constitution. The Constitution of India recognises the older courts.

The Madras High Court was formed by merging the Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras, and the Sadr Diwani Adalat. The Court was required to decide cases in accordance with justice, equity and good conscience. The earliest judges included Holloway, Innes, and Morgan. The first Indian to sit on the High Court was Justice T. Muthuswamy Iyer. Other early Indian judges included Justices V. Krishnaswamy Iyer and P. R. Sundaram Iyer.

The Madras High Court was a pioneer in Original Side jurisdiction reform in favor of Indian practitioners as early as the 1870s.

The history means that the decisions of the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are still binding on it, provided that the ratio of a case has not been overruled by the Supreme Court of India.

Although the city was renamed from Madras to Chennai in 1996, the Court continued as the Madras High Court. The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution appealing to the Central Government to rename the court as High Court of Tamil Nadu since the Court serves the whole state.[9]

Court complex

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Madras High Court, Chennai

The High Court complex is located in the southern end of George Town. The building was constructed after relocating temples on the land. The building now used exclusively by the High Court was built to also house the Courts of Small Causes and the City Civil Court. These were subsequently shifted to other buildings on the campus.[10]

The High Court building is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. Construction began in October 1888 and was completed in 1892 following the design prepared by J. W. Brassington,[10] and later under the guidance of architect Henry Irwin,[11] who completed it with the assistance of J. H. Stephens.

Brassington initially prepared a plan to construct a building with 11 court halls at an estimate of ₹945,000. Six were meant for the High Court, four for the Small Causes Court, and one for the City Civil Court. An additional building to house lawyers’ chambers was added to the plan, with a first floor walkway to connect it to the main building, increasing the budget to ₹1,298,163. Complementing a 125-feet-tall standalone lighthouse that was already on the site, a dioptric light was built on the 142-feet-high main tower of the building, raising the tower's height to 175 feet.[10]

Save for the steel girders and some ornamental tiles, almost all the material for the construction was procured locally. Brick and terracotta were brought from government brickyards. Most of the construction was executed by local artisans trained at the School of Arts.[10]

The High Court building was damaged in the shelling of Madras by SMS Emden on 22 September 1914, at the beginning of the First World War. It remains one of the few Indian buildings to have been damaged by a German attack.

The building offers several points of architectural interest. The painted ceilings and the stained glass doors are masterpieces. The old lighthouse is housed within the High Court campus but is poorly maintained and in disrepair.

The boundaries of the complex are marked by Prakasam Road (formerly Broadway) and Rajaji Road (the old North Beach Road), stretching northward from the statue of Rajaji in the northeast and the statue of T. Prakasamgaru in the southwest within the complex. The complex houses the largest number of courts in Asia.[12]

 
Panoramic view of the High Court and its surroundings

The city civil and sessions courts, which are located inside the High Court campus, are in two blocks, namely, the main and annexe buildings. Some of the city civil courts are located at Additional City Civil Court Complex at Allikulam Commercial Complex in Park Town and M. Singaravelar Maligai in George Town. The District and Session Court for Exclusive Trial of Bomb Blast Cases is located at Karayanchavadi in the neighbourhood of Poonamallee, and the Commercial Court is located in the neighbourhood of Egmore.[13]

Bench

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The current Chief Justice of the Madras High Court is Sanjay V. Gangapurwala. The court houses 63 judges, including the Chief Justice. They exercise civil, criminal, writ, testamentary and admiralty jurisdiction.[14] The Madurai Bench began functioning in 2004.

The vestiges of the colonial High Court characterise the premises. Justices of the Madras High Court are led by orderlies who bear a ceremonial mace made of silver. Most High Courts and the Supreme Court of India either never had the practice or abandoned it.[15]

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Madras Law Journal

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The Madras High Court is the birthplace of organised legal reporting in India. It is home to the Madras Law Journal,[16] which was the first journal dedicated to reporting texts of judgments of the High Court. It started in 1891.

 
The High Courts, c. 1905

The Saturday Club met every week. It was started at the house of the Vakil Bar's senior member Sir S. Subramania Iyer in Mylapore in 1888. All leading members of the Madras Bar took part. At one meeting, it was decided to start The Madras Law Journal, which was inspired by other newly established periodicals such as Law Quarterly Review, started by Sir Frederick Pollock in England in 1885 and The Harvard Law Review established by Harvard Law School Association in 1887.

The objectives of the journal were laid out in the preface of the first issue:

In addition to giving our own reports of the decisions of the High Courts in Madras and other places, we hope to place before our readers translations of various Hindu Law Books which remain yet untranslated, insofar as they have bearing on questions which practically arise for decision every day in our Courts of Justice. We propose further from time to time, to place side by side the conflicting decisions of the various Courts in India on the same point in the hope that such procedure will enable the Courts to act in greater harmony than they do at present in the interpretation of Acts and enunciation of general principles of law and when this is not possible, to enable the Legislature to bring about such harmony by removing the ambiguities which may have given rise to such discordant views.

The Madras Law Journal is known for its quickness and reporting accuracy and its discriminating selection of cases to be reported. It occupies a premier place among Indian legal periodicals.

Madras Weekly Notes (criminal and civil)

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Madras Weekly Notes is a law journal reporting criminal judgements of the Madras High Court from 1910 to till date.

Citations are formatted as, e.g., "1929 1 MWN(Cr.) 1", where (left to right) 1929 is the year, 1 is the volume, "MWN(Cr.)" is the abbreviated journal name, and "1" is the page number.

Journals

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Journals that record cases include Current Tamil Nadu Cases, Current Writ Cases, and Tamil Nadu Motor Accident Cases.

Madurai Bench

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Established in 2004, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court handles cases in the fourteen southern districts of Tamil Nadu, as the court is located in the far-northern capital. The bench is located in Madurai, and has the Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, Madurai, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Theni, Sivaganga, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli and Karur districts under its jurisdiction.

The court complex has 12 court halls, and now increased upto 25 halls furnished on the model of the court halls in the Supreme Court, the Delhi and the Madras High Court.

The court, since its inauguration on 24 July 2004, has accelerated the legal process in the southern districts.[17]

List of chief justices

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Watercolour "Holy men outside Sir Thomas Strange house." In 1800, Strange became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Fort St. George (Madras), British India.

Supreme Court

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# Chief Justice Term
1 Sir Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange 1801–1816
2 Sir John Henry Newbolt 1816–1820
3 Sir Edmond Stanley 1820–1825
4 Sir Ralph Palmer 1825–1835
5 Sir Robert Buckley Comyn 1835–1842
6 Sir Edward John Gambier 1842–1850
7 Sir Christopher Rawlinson 1850–1859
8 Sir Henry Davison 1859–1860
9 Sir Colley Harman Scotland 1860–1861

High Court (British Administration)

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# Chief Justice Term
9 Sir Colley Harman Scotland 1861–1871
10 Sir Walter Morgan 1871–1879
11 Sir Charles Arthur Turner 1879–1885
12 Sir Arthur John Hammond Collins 1885–1898
13 Charles Arnold White 1899–1914
14 John Edward Power Wallis 1914–1921
15 Sir Walter George Salis Schwabe 1921–1924
16 Sir Murray Coutts-Trotter 1924–1929
17 Sir Horace Owen Compton Beasley 1929–1937
18 Sir Alfred Henry Lionel Leach 1937–1947
19 Sir Fredrick William Gentle 1947–1948

High Court (Indian Administration)

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S. No. Chief Justice Date of Appointment Date of Retirement
20 P. V. Rajamannar 22 April 1948 9 May 1961
21 S. Ramachandra Iyer 16 September 1961 1 November 1964
22 Palagani Chandra Reddy 15 February 1965 30 June 1966
23 M. Anantanarayanan 1 July 1966 30 April 1969
24 Kuppuswami Naidu Veeraswami 1 May 1969 11 March 1976
25 Palapatti Sadaya Goundar Kailasam 8 April 1976 2 January 1977
26 Padmanbhapillay Govindan Nair 3 January 1977 28 May 1978
27 Tayi Ramaprasada Rao 29 May 1978 5 November 1979
28 Muhammad Kassim Muhammad Ismail 6 November 1979 9 July 1981
29 Ballabh Narayan Singh 12 March 1982 24 January 1984
30 Madhukar Narhar Chandurkar 2 April 1984 13 March 1988
31 Shanmughasundaram Mohan 19 October 1989 24 October 1989
32 Adarsh Sein Anand 1 November 1989 17 November 1991
33 Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar 15 June 1992 14 November 1992
34 Kudarikoti Annadanayya Swamy 1 July 1993 19 March 1997
35 Manmohan Singh Liberhan 7 July 1997 27 December 1998
36 Ashok Chhotelal Agarwal 24 May 1999 26 August 1999
37 K. G. Balakrishnan 9 September 1999 15 June 2000
38 Nagendra Kumar Jain 13 September 2000 30 August 2001
39 B. Subhashan Reddy 12 September 2001 20 November 2004
40 Markandey Katju 28 November 2004 10 October 2005
41 Ajit Prakash Shah 12 November 2005 9 May 2008
42 Asok Kumar Ganguly 19 May 2008 15 December 2008[18]
43 Hemant Laxman Gokhale 9 March 2009 28 April 2010
44 M. Y. Eqbal 11 June 2010 21 December 2012
45 Rajesh Kumar Agrawal 24 October 2013 16 February 2014
46 Sanjay Kishan Kaul 26 July 2014 16 February 2017[19]
47 Indira Banerjee 5 April 2017 6 August 2018
48 Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani 12 August 2018 6 September 2019
49 Amreshwar Pratap Sahi 11 November 2019 31 December 2020
50 Sanjib Banerjee 4 January 2021 16 November 2021
51 Munishwar Nath Bhandari 14 February 2022 12 September 2022
52 Sanjay V. Gangapurwala 28 May 2023 23 May 2024
53 R. Mahadevan (acting) 24 May 2024 17 July 2024
54 D. Krishnakumar (acting) 18 July 2024 26 September 2024
55 Shriram Kalpathi Rajendran 27 September 2024 Incumbent

Judges

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The Madras High Court is permitted to have a maximum of 75 judges, of which 56 may be permanently appointed and 19 may be additionally appointed. It currently has 61 judges.[20]

Permanent judges

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# Judge Date of joining Date of retirement
1 D. Krishnakumar (ACJ) 7 April 2016 21 May 2025
2 S. S. Sundar 7 April 2016 2 May 2025
3 R. Subramanian 5 October 2016 24 July 2025
4 M. Sundar 5 October 2016 18 July 2028
5 R. Suresh Kumar 5 October 2016 28 May 2026
6 J. Nisha Banu 5 October 2016 17 September 2028
7 M. S. Ramesh 5 October 2016 27 December 2025
8 S. M. Subramaniam 5 October 2016 30 May 2027
9 Dr. Anita Sumanth 5 October 2016 14 April 2032
10 P. Velmurugan 5 October 2016 8 June 2027
11 Dr. G. Jayachandran 5 October 2016 31 March 2027
12 C. V. Karthikeyan 5 October 2016 13 December 2026
13 R. M. T. Teeka Raman 16 November 2016 8 June 2025
14 N. Sathish Kumar 16 November 2016 5 May 2029
15 N. Seshasayee 16 November 2016 7 January 2025
16 V. Bhavani Subbaroyan 28 June 2017 16 May 2025
17 A. D. Jagadish Chandira 28 June 2017 14 February 2028
18 G. R. Swaminathan 28 June 2017 31 May 2030
19 Abdul Quddhose 28 June 2017 7 September 2031
20 M. Dhandapani 28 June 2017 14 April 2030
21 Pondicherry Daivasigamani Audikesavalu 28 June 2017 29 December 2032
22 R. Tharani 1 December 2017 9 June 2023
23 R. Hemalatha 1 December 2017 30 April 2025
24 P. T. Asha 4 June 2018 21 August 2028
25 N. Nirmal Kumar 4 June 2018 22 November 2027
26 N. Anand Venkatesh 4 June 2018 3 July 2031
27 G. K. Ilanthiraiyan 4 June 2018 8 July 2032
28 Krishnan Ramasmy 4 June 2018 2 June 2030
29 C. Saravanan 4 June 2018 30 November 2033
30 B. Pugalendhi 20 November 2018 24 May 2029
31 Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy 22 February 2019 1 October 2028
32 Battu Devanand 13 January 2020 13 April 2028
33 Govindarajulu Chandrasekharan 3 December 2020 30 May 2024
34 Veerasamy Sivagnanam 3 December 2020 31 May 2025
35 Ilangovan Ganesan 3 December 2020 4 June 2025
36 Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup 3 December 2020 17 July 2025
37 Murali Shankar Kuppuraju 3 December 2020 30 May 2030
38 Manjula Ramaraju Nalliah 3 December 2020 15 February 2026
39 Thamilselvi T. Valayapalayam 3 December 2020 18 June 2030
40 Sundaram Srimathy 20 October 2021 9 January 2029
41 D. Bharatha Chakravarthy 20 October 2021 23 July 2033
42 R. Vijayakumar 20 October 2021 21 December 2032
43 Mohammed Shaffiq 20 October 2021 5 March 2034
44 J. Sathya Narayana Prasad 29 October 2021 14 March 2031
45 Devaraju Nagarjun 24 March 2022 14 August 2024
Vacant

Additional judges

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# Judge Date of joining
1 A. A. Nakkiran 3 December 2020
2 Nidumolu Mala 28 March 2022
3 S. Sounthar 28 March 2022
4 Sunder Mohan 6 June 2022
5 Kabali Kumaresh Babu 6 June 2022
6 Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri 7 February 2023
7 Pillaipakkam Bahukutumbi Balaji 7 February 2023
8 Kandhasami Kulandaivelu Ramakrishnan 7 February 2023
9 Ramachandran Kalaimathi 7 February 2023
10 K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi 7 February 2023
11 Venkatachari Lakshminarayanan 27 February 2023
12 Periyasamy Vadamalai 27 March 2023
13 Ramasamy Sakthivel 23 May 2023
14 P. Dhanabal 23 May 2023
15 Chinnasamy Kumarappan 23 May 2023
16 Kandasamy Rajasekar 23 May 2023
Vacant

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Calcutta High Court - About". www.calcuttahighcourt.gov.in. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  2. ^ "Madras High Court: Where justice began 125 years ago". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  3. ^ Alexander, Deepa (29 January 2019). "History lessons about Madras High Court". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  4. ^ "Madras High Court". BSNL. Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  5. ^ a b "History of Madras High Court". Madras High Court. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014. Retrieved 25 April 2014.
  6. ^ "High Court to get 15 new judges next week". The Hindu. 25 September 2016. Archived from the original on 25 September 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  7. ^ Sangameswaran, K. T.; Vivek Narayanan (8 June 2014). "Madras High Court buildings to undergo repairs soon". The Hindu. Chennai. Archived from the original on 9 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
  8. ^ "Madras High Court". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  9. ^ "Rename Madras high court as Tamil Nadu HC and not as Chennai HC, resolution passed by TN assembly says - Times of India". indiatimes.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  10. ^ a b c d Mohamed Imranullah, S. (16 September 2017). "A timeless edifice serving justice celebrates 125 years today". The Hindu. Chennai. Archived from the original on 20 September 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2017.
  11. ^ "Restoring the old Article from NewIndPress news website". newindpress.com. Archived from the original on 26 November 2006. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  12. ^ Chandru, K. (26 November 2011). "Some thoughts around the Madras High Court". The Hindu. Chennai. Archived from the original on 28 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
  13. ^ "City Civil and Sessions Court". E-Court Mission Mode Project. Tamil Nadu District Judiciary. n.d. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  14. ^ Court, Madras High. "Madras High Court - Present Judges". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018.
  15. ^ "Lordships cling to colonial mace". The Hindu. 7 February 2013. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  16. ^ [1] Archived 13 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  17. ^ Vandhana, ?. M. (15 July 2013). "The 'green bench' that has delivered landmark judgements". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013.
  18. ^ "Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly to be Chief Justice of Madras High Court". The India Post. 21 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
  19. ^ "Madras High Court". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  20. ^ "Madras High Court - Profile of Chief Justice". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
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