Allahabad High Court
High Court building in Allahabad
25°27′11″N 81°49′14″E / 25.45306°N 81.82056°E / 25.45306; 81.82056
Established17 March 1866 (in Agra)
1869 (in Allahabad)
JurisdictionUttar Pradesh
LocationPrincipal Seat: Prayagraj
Permanent Bench: Lucknow
Coordinates25°27′11″N 81°49′14″E / 25.45306°N 81.82056°E / 25.45306; 81.82056
Composition methodPresidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state.
Authorized byConstitution of India
Judge term lengthmandatory retirement by age of 62
Number of positions160 (permanent 76; additional 84)
Websiteallahabadhighcourt.in
Chief Justice
CurrentlyManoj Kumar Gupta (acting)
Since22 November 2023
Inner block of Allahabad High Court

Allahabad High Court, officially known as High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, is the high court based in the city of Prayagraj, formerly known as Allahabad, that has jurisdiction over the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 17 March 1866, making it one of the oldest high courts to be established in India.

High court Seats

Location Type Status
Allahabad Principal Seat Active
Lucknow Bench Active
Agra Bench Proposed

A bench of the court in Agra is proposed since Allahabad High Court is very far from western Uttar Pradesh. People have to travel 700 km, 6 other high courts from other states and even Lahore High Court is closer to western Uttar Pradesh than Allahabad High Court.

History

Allahabad became the seat of Government of North-Western Provinces and a High Court was established in 1834 but was shifted to Agra within a year.[1] In 1875 it shifted back to Allahabad.[2][3] The former High Court was located at the Accountant General's office at the University of Allahabad complex.[3]

It was founded as the High Court of Judicature for the North-Western Provinces at Agra on 17 March 1866 by the Indian High Courts Act 1861 replacing the old Sadr Diwani Adalat. Sir Walter Morgan, Barrister-at-Law and Mr. Simpson were appointed the first Chief Justice and the first Registrar respectively of the High Court of North-Western Provinces.

The location of the High Court for the North-Western Provinces was moved from Agra to Allahabad in 1875 and the name was correspondingly changed to the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad from 11 March 1919.

On 2 November 1925, the Oudh Judicial Commissioner's Court was replaced by the Oudh Chief Court at Lucknow by the Oudh Civil Courts Act of 1925, enacted by the United Provinces Legislature with the previous sanction of the Governor General and the passing of this Act.

On 25 February 1948, the Chief Court of Oudh was amalgamated with the High Court of Allahabad.

When the state of Uttaranchal, now known as Uttarakhand, was carved out of Uttar Pradesh in 2000, this high court ceased to have jurisdiction over the districts falling in Uttaranchal.

Building of the cicuit bench of Allahabad High Court.

Principal seat and benches

The seat of the court is at Prayagraj. Allahabad High Court maintains a permanent circuit bench at Lucknow, the administrative capital of the state. The maximum number of serving judges is 160, the highest in India.

Chief Justice

Official residence of the Chief Justice

/

Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta is the current Acting Chief Justice of the High Court.

List of chief justices

# Chief Justice Term start Term end Governor (oathed by)
English Hindi
1 Walter Morgan वाल्टेर मॉर्गन 1866 1871
2 Robert Stuart रॉबर्ट स्टुअर्ट 1871 1884
3 William Comer Petheram विलियम कॉमर पैथराम 1884 1886
4 John Edge जॉन एज 1886 1898
5 Louis Addin Kershaw लुइस एडिन केर्शौ 1898
6 Arthur Strachey आर्थर स्ट्राचे 1898 1901
7 John Stanley जॉन स्टानले 1901 1911
8 Henry George Richards हेनरी जॉर्ज रिचर्ड्स 1911 1919
9 Edward Grimwood Mears एडवर्ड ग्रिमवुड मेयर्स 1919 1932
10 Shah Muhammad Sulaiman शाह मुहम्मद सुलेमान 1932 1937
11 John Gibb Thom जॉन गिब थॉम 1937 1941
12 Iqbal Ahmad इक़बाल अहमद 1941 1946
13 Kamala Kanta Verma कमल कांत वर्मा 1946 1947
After Independence
14 Bidhu Bhushan Malik बिधु भूषण मलिक 1947 1955 Sarojini Naidu
15 O.H. Mootham ओ. एच. मूथाम 1955 1961 Kanhaiyalal Maneklal Munshi
16 Manulal Chunilal Desai मनुलाल चुन्नीलाल देसाई 1961 1966 Burgula Ramakrishna Rao
17 Vashishtha Bhargava वशिष्ठ भार्गव 25 February 1966 7 August 1966 Bishwanath Das
18 Nasirullah Beg नसरुल्लाह बेग 1966 1967
19 Vidyadhar Govind Oak विद्याधर गोविन्द ओक 1967 1971 Bezawada Gopala Reddy
20 Shashi Kanta Verma शशि कांत वर्मा 1971 1973
21 Dhatri Saran Mathur धातृ शरण माथुर 1973 1974 Akbar Ali Khan
22 Kunwar Bahadur Asthana कुंवर बहादुर अस्थाना 1974 1977 Marri Chenna Reddy
23 D. M. Chandrashekhar डी. एम्. चंद्रशेखर 1977 1978 Ganpatrao Devji Tapase
24 Satish Chandra सतीश चंद्र 1978 1983
25 Mahesh Narain Shukla महेश नारायण शुक्ल 1983 1985 Chandeshwar Prasad Narayan Singh
26 Hriday Nath Seth ह्रदय नाथ सेठ 1986 Mohammed Usman Arif
27 Kalmanje Jagannatha Shetty कलमञ्जे जगन्नाथ शेट्टी 1986 1987
28 Dwarka Nath Jha द्वारका नाथ झा 1987
29 Amitav Banerji अमिताव बनर्जी 1987 1988
30 Brahma Nath Katju ब्रह्म नाथ काटजू 1988 1989
31 B. P. Jeevan Reddy बी. पी. जीवन रेड्डी 1990 1991 B. Satya Narayan Reddy
32 Manoj Kumar Mukherjee मनोज कुमार मुख़र्जी 1991 1993
33 S. S. Sodhi एस. एस. लोधी 1994 1995 Motilal Vora
34 A. Lakshman Rao ए. लक्ष्मण राव 1995 1996
35 D. P. Mohapatra डी. पी. महापात्र 1996 1998
36 N. K. Mitra एन. के. मित्रा 1999 2000 Suraj Bhan
37 Shyamal Kumar Sen श्यामल कुमार सेन 8 May 2000 24 November 2002
38 Tarun Chatterjee तरुण चटर्जी 31 January 2003 26 August 2004 Vishnu Kant Shastri
39 Ajoy Nath Ray अजय नाथ रे 11 January 2005 26 January 2007 T. V. Rajeswar
40 Hemant Laxman Gokhale हेमंत लक्ष्मण गोखले 7 March 2007 8 March 2009
41 Chandramauli Kumar Prasad चंद्रमौली कुमार प्रसाद 20 March 2009 7 February 2010
42 Ferdino Rebello फ़र्डिनो रेबेल्लो 26 June 2010 30 July 2011 Banwari Lal Joshi
43 Syed Rafat Alam सय्यद रफात आलम 4 August 2011 8 August 2012
44 Shiva Kirti Singh शिवा कीर्ति सिंह 17 October 2012 18 September 2013
45 Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud धनञ्जय यशवंत चंद्रचूड़ 31 October 2013 12 May 2016
46 Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale[4] दिलीप बाबासाहेब भोसले 30 July 2016 23 October 2018 Ram Naik
47 Govind Mathur गोविन्द माथुर 14 November 2018 13 April 2021
48 Sanjay Yadav संजय यादव 14 April 2021 26 June 2021 Anandiben Patel
49 Rajesh Bindal राजेश बिंदल 11 October 2021 12 February 2023
50 Pritinker Diwaker प्रीतिंकर दिवाकर 26 March 2023 21 November 2023

Agra High Court Bench Demand

Residents of Western Uttar Pradesh have also been long demanding a high court bench in Agra. Almost 54% of all cases reaching the High Court originate from the 22 districts of Western UP, still, western Uttar Pradesh does not have a High Court. [5]

Shockingly, eight other High Courts are closer to litigants of the Western High Court than their own High Court in Allahabad. These High Courts are:

  • High Court at Delhi
  • High Court at Shimla
  • High Court at Chandigarh
  • High Court at Nainital
  • High Court at Jammu
  • High Court Jaipur
  • High Court Gwalior

Even Lahore High Court is closer to western Uttar Pradesh than Allahabad. [6]

While west UP accounts for 51.71% of state GDP, the lagging Bundelkhand accounts for just 5.22%, though it has risen from 4.95% bringing some solace to the government. Western Uttar Pradesh has been generating the most revenues for the government and has not been given enough representation in the government and justice system. [7]

Highest Number of Pending Cases

Uttar Pradesh has at least 9 times more pending cases than any other state.

Allahabad High Court as of 2022, has 9.33 lakh cases pending in the fast-track courts of Uttar Pradesh, followed by over 1.04 lakh cases in Maharashtra, 1.02 lakh cases in Tamil Nadu, 71,260 cases in West Bengal and 12,538 cases in Telangana.

A bench at Agra is needed as a lot of corporate and capital investments in Noida, have gone to other states due to more readily accessibility of justice in corporate affairs.

The decision by Foxconn and Winston to choose Tamil Nadu and Karnataka as their manufacturing hub has been attributed by experts for this very same reason.

If Uttar Pradesh wants to attract investments then it is recommended by the NCR planning committee to work on setting up a High Court bench in Agra with utmost priority. [8]

Demands for a separate state

Union minister Sanjeev Baliyan said that a separate state Harit Pradesh must be made Meerut should become its capital. The population here is eight crore and the high court is 750 kilometres from here. So this demand is completely justified.

Even BR Ambedkar proposed that Uttar Pradesh must be split into 3 different states since it is too big to have efficient administration.

Chief Justice and judges

The court has a Sanctioned strength of 160 (Permanent:120, Additional:40) judges.

Judges elevated to the Supreme Court of India-

Sr. no Name of the judge, justice Date of elevation Date of retirement Parent High Court
1 Vineet Saran 7 August 2018 10 May 2022 Allahabad
2 Krishna Murari 23 September 2019 8 July 2023 Allahabad
3 Vikram Nath 31 August 2021 23 September 2027 Allahabad
4 Pankaj Mithal 7 July 2006 16 June 2026 Allahabad

Sitting Judges of Allahabad High Court-

Reporting and citation

Journals that report Allahabad High Court Judgements include

  1. Allahabad Criminal Cases,
  2. Allahabad Law Journal
  3. Allahabad Law Reports
  4. Allahabad Daily Judgement
  5. Allahabad Civil Journal
  6. Allahabad Weekly Cases
  7. Allahabad Rent Cases
  8. Accidents Claims Journal
  9. Allahabad Criminal Rulings
  10. Criminal Law Journal
  11. Motor Accident Claims
  12. Revenue Decisions
  13. U.P. Local Bodies and Education Cases
  14. Lucknow Civil Decisions (LCD)
  15. All India Judicial Interpretation on Crimes

High Court Service

The Office staff at High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is broadly divided into five Cadres:

  • General office Cadre(Registrar Cadre)

An officer enters this cadre in the rank of Review Officer/Asst. Review Officer/Computer Assistant after passing a competitive exam and rises up through successive promotions on S.O./Asst./Deputy/Joint Registrar to reach the post of Registrar.

  • Bench Secretary Cadre
  • Private Secretary Cadre
  • Computer Cadre
  • Library Cadre

Some other cadres/posts at High Court of Judicature at Allahabad are -

  • Chief Documentation Officer cum Chief Librarian (currently held by Sri. Amitabh Saran)
  • Physiotherapist
  • Court Manager

Commemorative postal stamps

Commemorative stamps released by India Post -

1966
2016
2016

References

  1. ↑ Joshi 2008, p. 93.
  2. ↑ Joshi 2008, p. 122.
  3. 1 2 Joshi 2008, p. 118
  4. ↑ "DB Bhosale takes over as Chief Justice of Allahabad HC". Business Standard. 30 July 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  5. ↑ "Lawyers rally for Meerut HC bench, suspend all work on Saturdays". The Times of India. 3 September 2023. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  6. ↑ "Agraमें हाईकोर्ट बेंच की मांग और तेज, अधिवक्‍ता बोले-सड़क पर उतरकर करेंगे आंदोलन - Demand for High Court Bench in Meerut intensified Advocate said will strike on road". Jagran (in Hindi). Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  7. ↑ PTI (29 November 2018). "'Lahore HC closer than Allahabad High Court'". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 3 October 2023.
  8. ↑ "UP tops chart among states in trials pending in fast-track courts - The Economic Times". m.economictimes.com. Retrieved 7 November 2023.

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