Madras High Court

From 1817 to 1862, the Supreme Court of Madras was opposite the Chennai Beach railway station. From 1862 to 1892, the High Court was also housed there. The present buildings were officially inaugurated on 12 July 1892, when the then Madras Governor, Beilby, Baron Wenlock, handed over the key to then Chief Justice Sir Arthur Collins.[7]

The statue of Manuneedhi Cholan in the Madras High Court premises

British India's three presidency towns of Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and Calcutta (Kolkata) were each granted a High Court by letters patent dated 26 June 1862.[8] The letters patent were issued by Queen Victoria under the authority of the British parliament's Indian High Courts Act 1861. The three courts are unique, established under British royal charter in contrast with the other high courts, which were established under the Indian Constitution. The Constitution of India recognises the older courts.

The Madras High Court was formed by merging the Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras, and the Sadr Diwani Adalat. The Court was required to decide cases in accordance with justice, equity and good conscience. The earliest judges included Holloway, Innes, and Morgan. The first Indian to sit on the High Court was Justice T. Muthuswamy Iyer. Other early Indian judges included Justices V. Krishnaswamy Iyer and P. R. Sundaram Iyer.

The Madras High Court was a pioneer in Original Side jurisdiction reform in favor of Indian practitioners as early as the 1870s.

The history means that the decisions of the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are still binding on it, provided that the ratio of a case has not been overruled by the Supreme Court of India.

Although the city was renamed from Madras to Chennai in 1996, the Court continued as the Madras High Court. The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution appealing to the Central Government to rename the court as High Court of Tamil Nadu since the Court serves the whole state.[9]

This article is part of a series on
Judiciary of India
Law of India
Administration Ministry of Law and Justice Department of Legal Affairs Legislative Department Department of Justice Law Commission of India
Civil courts Supreme Court of India Chief Justice of India Judges of the supreme court High courts of India Chief justices of high courts Judges of high courts District courts of India
Criminal courts Supreme Court of India Chief Justice of India Judges of the supreme court High courts of India Chief justices of high courts Judges of high courts Sessions courts Courts of judicial magistrate of first class Courts of judicial magistrate of second class
Courts of executive magistrates Courts of divisional commissioners Courts of district magistrates Courts of sub-divisional magistrates
Legal profession Bar Council of India Attorney General of India Solicitor General of India Additional solicitors general Advocates general
Legal education Legal education in India Autonomous law schools in India List of law schools in India
Others Alternative dispute resolution Lok Adalat Village courts Constitution of India Basic structure Directive principles Fundamental duties Fundamental rights Judicial review Indian Penal Code Civil Procedure Code Criminal Procedure Code Judicial activism in India National Judicial Appointments Commission Supreme Court Collegium

Madras High Court, Chennai

The High Court complex is located in the southern end of George Town. The building was constructed after relocating temples on the land. The building now used exclusively by the High Court was built to also house the Courts of Small Causes and the City Civil Court. These were subsequently shifted to other buildings on the campus.[10]

The High Court building is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. Construction began in October 1888 and was completed in 1892 following the design prepared by J. W. Brassington,[10] and later under the guidance of architect Henry Irwin,[11] who completed it with the assistance of J. H. Stephens.

Brassington initially prepared a plan to construct a building with 11 court halls at an estimate of ₹945,000. Six were meant for the High Court, four for the Small Causes Court, and one for the City Civil Court. An additional building to house lawyers’ chambers was added to the plan, with a first floor walkway to connect it to the main building, increasing the budget to ₹1,298,163. Complementing a 125-feet-tall standalone lighthouse that was already on the site, a dioptric light was built on the 142-feet-high main tower of the building, raising the tower's height to 175 feet.[10]

Save for the steel girders and some ornamental tiles, almost all the material for the construction was procured locally. Brick and terracotta were brought from government brickyards. Most of the construction was executed by local artisans trained at the School of Arts.[10]

The High Court building was damaged in the shelling of Madras by SMS Emden on 22 September 1914, at the beginning of the First World War. It remains one of the few Indian buildings to have been damaged by a German attack.

The building offers several points of architectural interest. The painted ceilings and the stained glass doors are masterpieces. The old lighthouse is housed within the High Court campus but is poorly maintained and in disrepair.

The boundaries of the complex are marked by Prakasam Road (formerly Broadway) and Rajaji Road (the old North Beach Road), stretching northward from the statue of Rajaji in the northeast and the statue of T. Prakasamgaru in the southwest within the complex. The complex houses the largest number of courts in Asia.[12]

Panoramic view of the High Court and its surroundings

The city civil and sessions courts, which are located inside the High Court campus, are in two blocks, namely, the main and annexe buildings. Some of the city civil courts are located at Additional City Civil Court Complex at Allikulam Commercial Complex in Park Town and M. Singaravelar Maligai in George Town. The District and Session Court for Exclusive Trial of Bomb Blast Cases is located at Karayanchavadi in the neighbourhood of Poonamallee, and the Commercial Court is located in the neighbourhood of Egmore.[13]

The current Chief Justice of the Madras High Court is Sanjay V. Gangapurwala. The court houses 63 judges, including the Chief Justice. They exercise civil, criminal, writ, testamentary and admiralty jurisdiction.[14] The Madurai Bench began functioning in 2004.

The vestiges of the colonial High Court characterise the premises. Justices of the Madras High Court are led by orderlies who bear a ceremonial mace made of silver. Most High Courts and the Supreme Court of India either never had the practice or abandoned it.[15]

Established in 2004, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court handles cases in the fourteen southern districts of Tamil Nadu, as the court is located in the far-northern capital. The bench is located in Madurai, and has the Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, Madurai, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Theni, Sivaganga, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli and Karur districts under its jurisdiction.

The court complex has 12 court halls, furnished on the model of the court halls in the Supreme Court, the Delhi and the Madras High Court.

The court, since its inauguration on 24 July 2004, has accelerated the legal process in the southern districts.[17]

The Madras High Court is permitted to have a maximum of 75 judges, of which 56 may be permanently appointed and 19 may be additionally appointed. It currently has 64 judges.[20]

• High Courts of India
• Architecture of Chennai
• Heritage structures in Chennai

Media related to Madras High Court at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website