JAMIA MILLIA ISLMIA

LEGAL METHODS

TOPIC: HERIARCHY OF INDIAN LEGAL

B.A.LL.B

III SEMESTER (SF)

SUBMITTED TO: SHABANA

SUBMITTED BY: ILMA KHAN

Introduction

India, being one of the biggest countries in the world with a fabulous population has a very
strong judiciary system which is inherent with the structure of the courts and its hierarchy and
the judicial system. This system provides livelihood to huge number of professionals attached
with the system of judiciary in different forms and thus serve the nation with the service. In this
essay, the structural pattern of judiciary system will be narrated with the hierarchical type of
courts effectively take part in the judiciary system and the different personalities engaged in this
profession to play different roles assigned to them.

Because of the size of the country, the judiciary system is planned as per the requirement of the
citizen of India with the location of courts as per status to serve the community of India with
efficiency. India has a rich tradition of providing justice to the affected and the courts in various
levels are there to serve the purpose of extending highest level of efficient juridical system all
over the country.

The court structure is set as per the judiciary system prevailing in India with differentiation of
applicability as per the merit of the case. The normal trend of the judiciary system is to start any
general dispute in the lower court which is being escalated as per the satisfaction of the parties to
the higher courts.

The hierarchical structure of court is being endorsed by the Constituency of India with the level
of power exercised by the different level of courts. The judgments can be challenged in the
higher courts if the parties to the cases are not satisfied. The process of escalation is systematic
and thus the system of providing maximum level of satisfaction to the parties is sincerely tried by
the judiciary system.

The feature Indian judiciary system is its hierarchical structure of courts. There are different
levels of judiciary system in India empowered with distinct type of courts. The courts are
structured with very strong judiciary and hierarchical system as per the powers bestowed upon
them. This system is strong enough to make limitation of court with its jurisdiction and exercise
of the power. The Supreme Court of India is placed at the top of the hierarchical position
followed by High Courts in the regional level and lower courts at micro level with the
assignment of power and exercising of the same for the people of India.

Supreme Court of India

Supreme Court of India is the highest level of court of Indian juridical system which was
established as per Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India which endorses the concept of
Supreme Court as the Federal Court to play the role of the guardian of the esteemed constitution
of India with the status of the highest level of court in the status of appeal cases.
Constitution Regulation

As conferred by Articles 124 to 147 of Indian Constituency, the jurisdiction and composition of
the Supreme Court is being fixed. This court is primarily of the status of appellate court. This
court is accepting the appeals of cases which are being heard in the High courts situated in
different states and union territories with dissatisfaction of related parties. This court also accepts
writ petitions with the suspected occurrence of activities which may infer about violation of
human rights and subsequent petitions are accepted to hear and judge the consequences of such
happenings.

These types of petitions are accepted under Article 32 of Indian constitution. This article confers
the right to ensure remedies through constitution. This court also hears about such serious issues
which need to be attended with immediate attention.

History

This court has started its operation since 28 January 1950 with the inaugural sitting, the day since
when the constitution of independent India had been effectively applicable. The court had
already taken care of more than 24,000 judgments as per report of the Supreme Court.

Structure and Application

This court is comprised of the Chief Justice along with 30 other judges to carry on the operation
of the court. The proceeding 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 the Article number 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 Court of India

Constitution
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.

Jurisdiction

These courts are mainly 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 originality 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 lower courts are proved
incapable of exercising their power as per authorization extended by law. These situations may
be generated through the inability 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 normally 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 varying so
far territorial jurisdiction is considered.

Ocial structure and application

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[8].

Lower Courts of India

District Courts

Constitution

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.

Structure and Jurisdiction

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 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
founded 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.

Village Courts

Constitution Structures and Features

The village courts are named as LokAdalat or NyayaPanchyat 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 different
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 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.

Conclusion

Courts and Justice System in India the courts are divided into three categories with top court,
middle court and lower court. The top court is named as the Supreme Court, while the middle
court is named as High Court, and the lower court is named as District Court.

This article will provide a detailed discussion about the hierarchical structure of these courts
along with the area of activities covered by them. The judicial system will also feature the
different aspects of the judicial system with the period taken for getting the disputes dissolved
with the present infrastructure of Indian judiciary system.