What is Bombay High Court?

The Bombay High Court (Hindi: बम्बई उच्च न्यायालय) was inaugurated on August 14, 1862. 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 562 feet long and 189 feet 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.

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.

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.

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 Aurangbad bench was established in 1982, initially on few districts of Maharashtra were under Aurangbad bench, subsequently in 1988 Ahmednagar & others districts were attcahed to the bench The bench at Aurangabad, has more than 12 judges. The jurisdiction of Aurangabad Bench is over Aurangabad, Ahmednagar, Dhule, Jalna, Jalgaon,Beed, Parbhani, Latur & Osmanabad.

The bench also has a Bar council of Maharshtra & Goa office.The present building of bench is a 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.

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.

Justice Swatanter Kumar is the Chief Justice. Former CJ Justice H. S. Bedi have been elevated to Supreme Court of India.

The causelist of Bombay High court can be accesed at [1]

See also

• High Courts of India

External links

• Official site
• Case Status System
• Order/Judgments Retrieval System

References

• Jurisdiction and Seats of Indian High Courts
• Judge strength in High Courts increased

High Courts of India

Allahabad High Court • Andhra Pradesh High Court • Bombay High Court • Calcutta High Court • Chhattisgarh High Court • Delhi High Court • Gujarat High Court • Guwahati High Court • Himachal Pradesh High Court • Jammu and Kashmir High Court • Jharkhand High Court • Karnataka High Court • Kerala High Court • Madhya Pradesh High Court • Madras High Court • Orissa High Court • Patna High Court • Punjab and Haryana High Court • Rajasthan High Court • Sikkim High Court • Uttaranchal High Court