Hierarchy of courts in India

Supreme Court or Apex Court the Constitution of India has established different courts at
the different level to meet the needs of justice of the citizens. It places the Supreme Court at
top of the ladder, followed by the high court and district court respectively.
Established on January 28, 1950; and Part V, Chapter IV of Indian Constitution empowers
the Supreme Court. Also, Supreme court is guardian of the Constitution of India. Moreover, it
got the highest status as an Appellate court. Because Supreme Court accepts the appeal in
those cases which have been adjudged by different high courts. Also, given that the parties to
the suit were not satisfied with the decision of the court. In short, the Supreme Court’s our
highest court of appeal.

 Constitutional Regulations of Supreme Court

Article 124 to 147 defines the jurisdiction and composition of the Supreme Court. The
Primary status of Supreme court is of Appellate Court. Also, the Supreme Court accepts the
writ petition regarding such activities in which occurrence of a violation of the human right is
suspected. Moreover, it also entertains the petition after happening of such events. Writ
petitions are accepted by the virtue of Article 32. This Article confers right to remedies
through writs.

 Structure and Application of Supreme Court

Currently, the Supreme Court has 1 Chief Justice of India along with 30 others judge. The
official language of the Supreme Court is the English language. Moreover, Supreme Court
rules, 1966 governs the Supreme Court. Article 145 provides same rules for the Governance
of the Supreme court. This Article has been passing through the process of upgrading
according to Supreme Court Rules.

High Courts

In Indian Judiciary, High Courts are the Second courts of Importance. In general, they are
subordinate to Supreme court. However, they have entirely different jurisdiction and are of
operation than the Supreme Court.  The work of High court primarily consists of appeal from
lower court and writ petitions conferred by the virtue of Article 226. Writ Jurisdiction is also
the Original Jurisdiction of High Court.

 Constitutional Validity of High Court

Article 141 of the Indian Constitution guides High Court. According to Article 141, the
Supreme Court’s judgments or precedent will govern other lower courts in India. Which
means, the Rules and Orders laid down in Earlier Judgement by Supreme Court becomes the
guiding post for all the other courts including High courts.

Part VI, Chapter V, Article 216 of Indian Constitution established High courts as
Constitutional Courts. They are Principal courts of Civil Jurisdiction situated in each State
and Union Territory. Currently, there are 24 high courts all over India.
  Jurisdiction of High Courts

Originally, High Court’s jurisdiction extends to States, Group of States and Union
Territories.  Also, they have power to govern the jurisdiction of subordinate courts i.e.
District courts. The status of High Court is of principal civil court. However, High Court
exercises their Original civil and criminal jurisdiction only when the subordinate court is not
competent enough to try such matters. Such a situation will arise by the inability of the
financial or territorial jurisdiction of lower courts. Only High Courts have jurisdiction to try
certain types of cases. For example- Company Law cases.

 Structure and Application

President of India with the consultation of CJI and Governor of the State appoints the Chief
Judge of High court. Similarly, they appoint other judges of High Court. Moreover, The
number of judges in High Court is mainly fixed by considering the higher number of either
the average of the organization of main cases for the last years as per the average nationally
calculated or the average rate of main cases disposed of per judge per year in the respective
high court.

District Court

As the name suggests, district Court operates at the district level in our country. It is the sole
discretion of the state’s or union territory’s (UT) govt to decide the number of courts to be in
state or UT. Such decision is generally based upon Number of cases and the population
distribution in a district. These courts exercise their power as administer of justice at the state
level. However, the judgements of District courts are appealable in subsequent high courts.

 Composition and Structure of the District Court

The highest court in a district is of district or session judge court. These are the principal
court of original civil jurisdiction besides High court in a state. District court derives its
jurisdiction from the code of Civil Procedure in the civil matter. And as a session court, it
derives jurisdiction from the code of Criminal procedure in criminal matters. District judge
and Session judge presides over the District court and Session courts respectively. The
Governor of the state on the advice of Chief Justice of the State appoints them. Beside
District judge, there is a number of Additional or Assistant District judge, depending on the
workload. Also, they have equal jurisdiction as of District or Session Judge.

 Jurisdiction of District Court

The district court exercise jurisdiction of both original side and appellate side. The District
Court has principal civil and criminal jurisdiction. However, the civil courts derive their
territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction from concerned state enactment on the subject matter.
And, derives jurisdiction from the Code of criminal procedure in criminal matters. As per the
code, a District or Session judge can award a convict, a maximum sentence of Capital
Punishment.