High courts of India

The high courts of India are the highest courts of appellate jurisdiction in each state and union territory of India. However, a high court exercises its original civil and criminal jurisdiction only if the subordinate courts are not authorized by law to try such matters for lack of peculiar or territorial jurisdiction. High courts may also enjoy original jurisdiction in certain matters, if so designated, especially by the constitution, a state law or union law.

High Courts Of India
Location	Respective States and Union Territory of India
Authorised by	Indian Constitution
Appeals to	Supreme Court of India

The work of most high courts primarily consists of adjudicating on appeals from lower courts and writ petitions in terms of Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution. Writ jurisdiction is also the original jurisdiction of a high court.

Each state is divided into judicial districts presided over by a district judge and a session judge. He is known as the district judge when he presides over a civil case and the session's judge when he presides over a criminal case. He is the highest judicial authority below a high court judge. Below him, there are courts of civil jurisdiction, known by different names in different states. Under Article 141 of the constitution, all courts in India, including high courts – are bound by the judgements and orders of the Supreme Court of India by precedence.

Judges in a high court are appointed by the president of India in consultation with the chief justice of India and the governor of the state under Article 217, Chapter Five of Part VI of the Constitution, but through subsequent judicial interpretations, the primacy of the appointment process is on the hands of the Judicial Collegium. High courts are headed by a chief justice. The chief justices rank fourteenth (within their respective states) and seventeenth (outside their respective states) on the Indian order of precedence. The number of judges in a court is decided by dividing the average institution of main cases during the last five years by the national average, or the average rate of disposal of main cases per judge per year in that high court, whichever is higher.

The Calcutta High Court is the oldest high court in the country, brought into existence on 14 May 1862. High courts that handle numerous cases of a particular region have permanent benches established there. Benches are also present in states which come under the jurisdiction of a court outside its territorial limits. Smaller states with few cases may have circuit benches established. Circuit benches (known as circuit courts in some parts of the world) are temporary courts which hold proceedings for a few selected months in a year. Thus cases built up during this interim period are judged when the circuit court is in session. According to a study conducted by Bangalore-based N.G.O, Daksh, on 21 high courts in collaboration with the Ministry of Law and Justice in March 2015, it was found that average pendency of a case in high courts in India is 3 years.

The buildings of Bombay High Court (as part of the Victorian and art deco ensemble of Mumbai) and Punjab and Haryana High Court (as part of the architectural work of Le Corbusier) are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

The high courts are substantially different from and should not be confused with the state courts of other federations, in that the Constitution of India includes detailed provisions for the uniform organisation and operation of all high courts. In other federations like the United States, state courts are formed under the constitutions of the separate states and as a result vary greatly from state to state.

High courts

The Calcutta High Court in Kolkata (est. 1862), Bombay High Court in Mumbai (est. 1862), Madras High Court in Chennai (est. 1862), Allahabad High Court in Allahabad (est. 1866), and Bangalore High Court (now Karnataka High Court) in Bengaluru (est. 1884) are the five oldest high courts in India. The Andhra Pradesh High Court and Telangana High Court are the newest high courts, established on 1 January 2019 according to the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.

The following are the 25 high courts in India, sorted by name, year established, act by which it was established, jurisdiction, principal seat (headquarters), permanent benches (subordinate to the principal seat), circuit benches (functional a few days in a month/year), the maximum number of judges sanctioned, and the presiding chief justice of the high court:

#	Court	Established	Act	Jurisdiction	Principal seat	Bench(es)	Judges			Chief Justice
1	Allahabad High Court	17 March 1866	Indian High Courts Act 1861	Uttar Pradesh	Prayagraj	Lucknow	160	119	41	Arun Bhansali (list)
2	Andhra Pradesh High Court	1 January 2019	Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014	Andhra Pradesh	Amaravati	—	37	28	9	Dhiraj Singh Thakur (list)
3	Bombay High Court	14 August 1862	Indian High Courts Act 1861	Goa, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Maharashtra	Mumbai	Aurangabad, Nagpur, Panaji Kolhapur	94	71	23	Shree Chandrashekhar (list)
4	Calcutta High Court	2 July 1862	Indian High Courts Act 1861	Andaman and Nicobar Islands, West Bengal	Kolkata	Port Blair Jalpaiguri	98	78	28	Tirunelveli Subbiah Sivagnanam (list)
5	Chhattisgarh High Court	1 November 2000	Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000	Chhattisgarh	Bilaspur	—	22	17	5	Ramesh Sinha (list)
6	Delhi High Court	31 October 1966	Delhi High Court Act, 1966	Delhi	New Delhi	—	60	46	14	Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya (list)
7	Gauhati High Court	1 March 1948	Government of India Act 1935	Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram, Nagaland	Guwahati	Aizawl, Itanagar, Kohima	30	22	8	Ashutosh Kumar (list)
8	Gujarat High Court	1 May 1960	Bombay Reorganisation Act, 1960	Gujarat	Ahmedabad	—	52	39	13	Sunita Agarwal (list)
9	Himachal Pradesh High Court	25 January 1971	State of Himachal Pradesh Act, 1970	Himachal Pradesh	Shimla	—	17	13	4	Gurmeet Singh Sandhawalia (list)
10	Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh High Court	26 March 1928	Letters Patent issued by then Maharaja of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019	Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh	Srinagar/Jammu	—	17	13	4	Arun Palli (list)
11	Jharkhand High Court	15 November 2000	Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000	Jharkhand	Ranchi	—	25	20	5	Tarlok Singh Chauhan (list)
12	Karnataka High Court	1884	Mysore High Court Act, 1884	Karnataka	Bengaluru	Dharwad, Kalaburagi	62	47	15	Vibhu Bakhru (list)
13	Kerala High Court	1 November 1956	States Reorganisation Act, 1956	Kerala, Lakshadweep	Kochi	—	47	35	12	Nitin Madhukar Jamdar (list)
14	Madhya Pradesh High Court	2 January 1936	Government of India Act 1935	Madhya Pradesh	Jabalpur	Gwalior, Indore	53	39	14	Sanjeev Sachdeva (list)
15	Madras High Court	26 June 1862	Indian High Courts Act 1861	Puducherry, and Tamil Nadu	Chennai	Madurai	75	56	19	Manindra Mohan Shrivastava (list)
16	Manipur High Court	25 March 2013	North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012	Manipur	Imphal	—	5	4	1	Kempaiah Somashekar (list)
17	Meghalaya High Court	23 March 2013	North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012	Meghalaya	Shillong	—	4	3	1	Hamarsan Singh Thangkhiew (acting) (list)
18	Orissa High Court	3 April 1948	Orissa High Court Ordinance, 1948	Odisha	Cuttack	—	33	24	9	Harish Tandon (list)
19	Patna High Court	2 September 1916	Letters Patent issued by then British Crown	Bihar	Patna	—	53	40	13	Pavankumar Bhimappa Bajanthri (acting) (list)
20	Punjab and Haryana High Court	15 August 1947	Punjab High Court Ordinance, 1947	Chandigarh, Haryana, Punjab	Chandigarh	—	85	64	21	Sheel Nagu (list)
21	Rajasthan High Court	21 June 1949	Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949	Rajasthan	Jodhpur	Jaipur	50	38	12	Kalpathi Rajendran Shriram (list)
22	Sikkim High Court	16 May 1975	The 36th Amendment to the Indian Constitution	Sikkim	Gangtok	—	3	3	0	Biswanath Somadder (list)
23	Telangana High Court	1 January 2019	Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014	Telangana	Hyderabad	—	42	32	10	Aparesh Kumar Singh (list)
24	Tripura High Court	26 March 2013	North-Eastern Areas (Reorganisation) and Other Related Laws (Amendment) Act, 2012	Tripura	Agartala	—	5	4	1	Mamidanna Satyaratna Ramachandra Rao (list)
25	Uttarakhand High Court	9 November 2000	Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000	Uttarakhand	Nainital	—	11	9	2	Guhanathan Narendar (list)
Total							1114	840	274	-

1. Permanent bench.
2. Circuit bench.
3. Srinagar is the summer capital; Jammu is the winter capital.

High courts by states/union territories

The Madras High Court in Chennai, one of the first four high courts of India

The Bombay High Court in Mumbai, one of the first four high courts of India and a World Heritage Site

The Calcutta High Court in Kolkata, oldest high court of India

The Allahabad High Court in Prayagraj, one of the first four high courts of India