Madras High Court
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The Madras High Court, one of the landmarks of the metropolis of Chennai, India, and believed to be the second largest judicial complex in the world, is located near the beach, one of the important central business districts of Chennai.
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[edit] History
Madras High Court was established on June 26, 1862 as one of the three High Courts of India (others at Bombay and Calcutta) established at Presidency Towns by Letters Patent granted by Queen Victoria.[1] The jurisdiction of the Madras High Court extends to Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry.
Although the name of the city was changed from Madras to Chennai in 1996, the Court as an institution did not follow suit and remained as the Madras High Court.
Along with the Bombay and Calcutta High Courts, it is one of three Courts which were designated as Supreme Courts for their respective Presidencies prior to the Indian High Courts Act, 1861. The Court has a Letters Patent issued by the British Crown and has been a pioneer in Original Side jurisdiction reform in favour of Indian practitioners, as early as in the 1870s.
[edit] Building complex
The building of the High Court, an exquisite example of Indo-Saracenic style of architecture, was built in 1892, under the guidance of the famed architect Henry Irwin.[2] The High Court building was damaged in the shelling of Madras by S.M.S. Emden on 22nd September 1914, at the beginning of the First World War. It remains one of the very few Indian buildings to have been damaged by a German attack.
[edit] Bench
With Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah heading the court, it has 40 Judges who handle both Civil and Criminal cases. The Madurai Bench has been functioning since 2004.
[edit] Reporting - Madras Law Journal (since 1891)
The Madras High Court is the birthplace of organised legal reporting in India. It is home to the Madras Law Journal.[3], which was the first journal dedicated to reporting texts of judgments of the High Court started way back in 1891.
The history of the journal is both fascinating as well as inspiring. An informal eponymous club called The Saturday Club, that met at 11 a. m. every week, was started at the house of the Vakil Bar's senior member Sir S. Subramania Iyer in Mylapore in 1888 with all leading members of the Madras Bar taking part. At one of these meetings it was decided to start 'The Madras Law Journal', which was inspired by the then newly established periodicals like 'Law Quarterly Review', started by Sir Frederick Pollock in England in 1885 and 'The Harvard Law Review' established by Harvard Law School Association in 1887.
The objectives of the journal were laid out in the preface of the first issue: "In addition to giving our own reports of the decisions of the High Courts in Madras and other places, we hope to place before our readers translations of various Hindu Law Books which remain yet untranslated, insofar as they have bearing on questions which practically arise for decision every day in our Courts of Justice. We propose further from time to time, to place side by side the conflicting decisions of the various Courts in India on the same point in the hope that such procedure will enable the Courts to act in greater harmony than they do at present in the interpretation of Acts and enunciation of general principles of law and when this is not possible, to enable the Legislature to bring about such harmony by removing the ambiguities which may have given rise to such discordant views."
Right from the beginning, The Madras Law Journal has been a source of inspiration and instruction to the students of law and its notes and editorial reviews always evoked admiration and respect. It achieved well-deserved fame throughout India, in England and America and indeed throughout the British Empire for its quickness and accuracy in reporting and discrimination in the selection of cases to be reported. It has now came to occupy a premier place among legal periodicals in the country and its weight and authority have been consistently considerable with the Bench and the Bar in all parts of India.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Madras Law Journal (MLJ) web site (to access decisions of the Madras High Court since 1891).
- High Court of Madras web site.
[edit] References
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