Bombay High Court Visit

Introduction to the court

The High Court of Bombay, which is the chartered High Court and one of the
oldest High Courts in the Country. It has Appellate Jurisdiction over the State of
Maharashtra, Goa, Daman & Diu and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. In addition to the
Principal
Seat at Bombay, it has benches at Aurangabad, Nagpur, Panaji (Goa).

The Legal history of Bombay may be said to have begun in 1661, when it became a
British possession. The Town and Island of Bombay was received by the British as a
part
of the dowry of the Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza, sister of Alphonso
VI,
the then Portuguese Monarch, when she married King Charles II . Bombay then was
little
more than a small fishing village consisting of a few straggling huts of Kolis, its
indigenous inhabitants; and its harbour, destined in the course of years to develop
into the
greatest and most important commercial seaport in the East, sheltered only a few
fishing
boats. Charles II transferred it to the East India Company in 1668 for an
insignificant
annual rent of 10 Pounds
Bombay High Court is one of the oldest India. It is located in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
Its
jurisdiction covers the states of Maharashtra and Goa, and the Union
Territories of Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. The High Court has
regional
branches at Nagpur and Aurangabad in Maharashtra and Panaji, the capital of Goa.[1]
The first Chief Justice, the Attorney General and Solicitor General of Independent
India were from this court. Since India's Independence, 22 judges from this court
have
been elevated to the Supreme Court and 8 of them have been Chief Justice of India.
[2]
The court has Original Jurisdiction in addition to its Appellate. The decisions of
this court
can be appealed only to the Supreme Court of India. The Bombay High Court has a
sanctioned strength of 94 judges (71 permanent, 23 additional).
The building is part of The Victorian and Art Deco Ensemble of Mumbai, which was
added to the list of World Heritage Sites in 2018.

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History and premises

The Bombay High Court was one of the three High Courts in India established at the
Presidency Towns by Letters patent granted by Queen Victoria, bearing date June 26,
1862. It was inaugurated on August 14, 1862 under the High Courts Act, 1861.

Bombay High Court, Fort, Mumbai

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. James A.
Fuller.
The first sitting in this building was on 10 January 1879. Justice M. C. Chagla was
the
first Indian permanent Chief Justice of Bombay High Court after independence [1948
-
1958][4] Architecture: Gothic revival in the Early English style. It is 562 feet
(171 m) long
and 187 feet (57 m) wide. To the west of the central tower are two octagonal
towers. The
statues of Justice and Mercy are atop this building.

Name of the court

Although the name of the city was changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1995, the Court
as an institution did not follow suit and retained the name Bombay High Court.
Although,
a bill[5] to rename it as Mumbai High Court was approved by the Cabinet on July 5,
2016
along with the change of name of the Calcutta High Court and Madras High
Court as Kolkata High Court and Chennai High Court respectively, the same is
pending
approval before the Parliament of India but may not be enacted for some time.

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Principal seat and 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.

Judge
Bench Territorial jurisdiction
Strength

Mumbai (City), Mumbai (Suburban), Thane, Palghar,

Kolhapur, Nashik, Pune, Raigad, Ratnagiri,
Satara,
Bombay(Principal) 35
Sangli, Sindhudurg, Solapur, Dadar & Nagar Haveli
at Silvassa, Daman, Diu.

Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Beed, Dhule, Jalna,

Aurangabad 18 Jalgaon, Latur, Nanded, Osmanabad, Parbhani,
Nandurbar

Nagpur, Akola, Amravati, Bhandara, Buldhana,

Nagpur 17 Chandrapur, Wardha, Yavatmal, Gondia, Gadchiroli,
Washim

Panaji 04 North Goa (Panaji), South Goa (Margao)

Total 74

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Nagpur bench

Nagpur is an industrial and commercial city situated in the centre of India.

Formerly, it
was the capital of the former State of CP & Berar, later old Madhya Pradesh and now
it is
the sub-capital of the State of Maharashtra. A full-fledged High Court was
established at
Nagpur on 9 January 1936. Later it was included as a separate bench in the Bombay
High
Court jurisdiction after the formation of the state of Maharashtra in 1960.

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 13 judges. The jurisdiction of the Aurangabad Bench is
over Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalna, Jalgaon, Beed, Parbhani, Latur & Osmanab
ad. The bench also has a Bar council of Maharashtra & Goa office. The present
building
of bench is situated in huge premises. The garden is beautifully maintained. Lush
green
grass invites the attention of any passerby. The HC bench at Aurangabad is just
approximately 4 km from the Aurangabad Airport and around 6 km from central bus
stand. The new building has 13 court halls in all now including two new. 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 1000 advocates, but
Aurangabad bench does not have a jurisdiction for company law matters.
The Aurangabad Bench celebrated its 28th anniversary on 27 August 2009.

Panaji bench

When the High Court of Bombay constituted a bench in Goa, Justice G.F Couto was
appointed its first Goan permanent judge. Justice G.D. Kamat was appointed as judge
in
1983 and later in 1996 as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Justice E.S da
Silva
was elevated in 1990 and was a judge of this court till his retirement in 1995.
Justice F.I
Rebello, was appointed Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court in 2010 and
retired in
2011. Justice R.K. Batta and Justice R.M.S. Khandeparkar were Judges of the Goa
bench

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for a brief period. Justice A.P Lavande, Justice F.M.Reis, and Justice M.S. Sonak,
were
senior lawyers who practiced in the Goa Bench before their elevation. Presently Goa
has
two lady judges, Justice Anuja Prabhudesai and Justice Nutan Sardesai who were both
District Judges.

Institution of Justice

With around 75 judges in the court, the Bombay High Court handles lakhs of civil
and
criminal cases. Honorable Mr. Justice Mohit S. Shah is the present Chief Justice of
the
Bombay High Court. Among all the prominent Chief Justices of Bombay High Court,
Honorable Justice S.B. Bhasme is considered to have had a highly reputable tenure.
He
resigned from the high court in 1979 to move over to the Supreme Court. His
judgments
solved matters which largely affected the public good.

History & Architecture

As per the 'Indian High Court Act' of 1861 passed by the Queen of England under the
great seal of the United Kingdom, the High Courts of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras
were
set up. Bombay High Court came into being on 14 August 1862 and the present
building
was designed by a British engineer, Col. J.A. Fuller. The structure follows a
Gothic
revival architecture dating back to the early English style. Although the name of
the city
changed from Bombay to Mumbai in 1996, the name of the High court remained the
same i.e., 'The Bombay High Court'. This beautiful structure built with black stone
is one
of the oldest and biggest courts in Western India and has benches in Panaji,
Aurangabad
and Nagpur. Along the west of the central tower, there are two octagonal towers and
statues of 'Justice' and 'Mercy' on the top of this building which serve as a
source of
inspiration for law abiding citizens.

Anniversary Celebrations
In 2012, several programs were organized in the High Court to mark the completion
of
150 years of its establishment. With regard to this, a special postal cover was
inaugurated
and released by Shri Milind Deora, the Minister of State for Communications and
Information Technology, on 14 August 2012 at the Central Court Hall in the court's
main
building. Also, an exhibition of important documents, artifacts and historical
articles was
held and inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr. Prithviraj Chavan.

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Bombay High Curt is associated with not only the history of the city, but also with
the
history of India. Try visiting this historical structure if you ever plan to visit
Mumbai.

Personal Observation

Out of the all lower court working in Mumbai, the structure & formation of Bombay
High Court is beautiful & well maintain, the judges here is most senior and well
experience to handle cases, Bombay High Court is one of the highest court which
discussion is mandatory to following by all lower court, all the court room is
fully
air-conditioner, clean and neat. the work lord in the court are divided equally
between
various department , the Bombay High court handling all matter of civil , criminal
and
the constitutional . Website of the court is fully updated with all latest order,
case details
& judges arrangement, one can have all the details regarding matters from website
itself.

Sources

1. Wikipedia
2. Bombay High court official site
3. Books
4. Internet
5. Personal visit