Bombay High Court

History & Premises

The Bombay High Court ( _mr. मुंबई उच्च न्यायालय) was inaugurated on August 14, 1862. Although the name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995, the Court as an institution did not follow suit and remained as the Bombay High Court. The work on the present building of the High Court was commenced in April 1871 and completed in November 1878. It was designed by British engineer Col. J.A. Fuller. The first sitting in this building was on January 10, 1879. Architecture: Gothic revival in the Early English style. It is convert|562|ft|m long and convert|189|ft|m wide. To the west of the central tower are two octagonal towers. The statues of Justice and Mercy are atop this building.The 125th anniversary of the building is slated to be marked by the release of a book, commissioned by the Bar Association, called "The Bombay High Court: The Story of the Building - 1878–2003" by local historians Rahul Mehrotra and Sharada Dwivedi.

Judges

Sanctioned strength: 60. A petition is pending to increase the number to 75 judges. The court handles 3.4 lakh cases, both civil and criminal. 32 sitting judges of the court disposed around 2,000 cases each in 2004. The court has a ratio of 1:1.61 million :: judges to people. Recently 8 new judges have elevated as High Court Judge. Justice Swatanter Kumar is the Chief Justice. Former CJ Justice H. S. Bedi has been elevated to Supreme Court of India. Hon'ble Justice S H Kapadia, Hon'ble Justice Sirpurkar have been elevated to the Supreme Court from Bombay High Court. [http://www.ebc-india.com/lawyer/hcourts.htm Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts] [http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/roct2003/30102003/r301020036.html Judge strength in High Courts increased]

Jurisdiction & Benches

The court has jurisdiction over the states of Maharashtra, Goa and the Union territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The court has benches in Nagpur, Aurangabad and Panaji.

Aurangabad bench

The Aurangabad bench was established in 1982. Initially only a few districts of Maharashtra were under the Aurangabad bench. Subsequently in 1988, Ahmednagar & others districts were attached to the bench. The bench at Aurangabad has more than 12 judges. The jurisdiction of the Aurangabad Bench is over Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalna, Jalgaon, Beed, Parbhani, Latur & Osmanabad.Recently Hon'ble Justice S.C. Bora and Justice P.B.Varale are elevated as High Court Judge, from the Aurangabad bench. The bench also has a Bar council of Maharashtra & Goa office.The present building of bench is situated in a very huge premises.The HC bench at Aurangabad is just approximately 4 KM from the airport and around 6 km from central bus stand. The new building has 11 court halls and two more are under construction and will start functioning in few days. All the court halls are on the first floor of the building, while the registry of the Court is on the ground floor. The Aurangabad bench has a strong Bar of more than 700 advocates.The Aurangabad Bench celebrates its 27th aniversary on the 27th of August 2008.

HISTORY : The formation and establishment of the Bench was by way of an order dt.August 27, 1981 by which the Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court - Sri.Venkatrao S. Deshpande, in exercise of his powers under Sub-section (3) of Section 51 of the States Reorganization Act, 1956 (Act XXXVII of 1956) with the prior approval of the Governor of Maharashtra. It was directed that the Judges and Division Courts of the High Court of Bombay shall also, sit at Aurangabad with effect from August 27, 1981 for the disposal of cases arising out of the Marathwada region of the State of Maharashtra.However, the relentless struggle of the lawyers from the Marathwada region and the efforts of the Social activists though had beared fruits by way of the Bench's formation, but the joy was shortlived.A case was filed in the Bombay High Court itself challenging the legal validity of the Chief Justice's action.The matter went upto the Supreme Court and a three judges Bench comprising of Justice Sen upheld the establishment of the Court.

Goa bench

When the High Court of Bombay constituted a bench in Goa, Justice G.F Couto was appointed its first Goan permanent judge. Later Justice G.D. Kamat was appointed as judge in 1983 and went on to become Chief Justice of Gujarat. Justice E.S da Silva was elevated in 1990 and had a 5 year term. Justice R.K. Batta was briefly a Judge in this bench. Presently Justice N.A. Britto is a permanent judge in Goa. Justice Ferdino Rebello, Justice R.M.S. Khandeparkar and Justice A.V Lavande, all sitting jugdes, were senior lawyers who practised in the Goa Bench before their elevation.

Case Information

bombayhighcourt.nic.in is the official website of the Bombay High Court. The case status and judgments of all cases after 2006 is available on the website. The causelist of Bombay High court can be accessed at http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/netbd.php

ee also

* High Courts of India

External links

* [http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/ New site]
* [http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/cssindex.php Case Status System]
* [http://bombayhighcourt.nic.in/index.php Order/Judgments Retrieval System]

References