The Indian High Courts Act 1861

In one line

One Act of nineteen sections ended the dual judicial system by abolishing both the Supreme Courts and the Sadar Adalats and putting a single High Court in each Presidency in their place.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: the Indian High Courts Act 1861, 24 & 25 Vict. c. 104, assented to on 6 August 1861, empowered Her Majesty by Letters Patent under the Great Seal to erect and establish High Courts of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal and at Madras and Bombay, each consisting of a Chief Justice and not more than fifteen judges drawn from four prescribed classes, abolished the Supreme Courts and the Sadar Adalats on the establishment of each High Court and vested their whole jurisdiction in it, provided for the exercise of that jurisdiction by single judges and Division Courts, gave each High Court superintendence over all courts subject to its appellate jurisdiction and power to make general rules, and empowered Her Majesty to erect further High Courts elsewhere in India.

Section 1: the power, and why it is a power and not a court

Section 1 provides that it shall be lawful for Her Majesty, by Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, to erect and establish a High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal for the Bengal Division of that Presidency, and by like Letters Patent to erect and establish like High Courts at Madras and Bombay for those Presidencies respectively, at such time or respective times as to Her Majesty may seem fit; and the High Court established under any such Letters Patent shall be deemed established from the publication of those Letters Patent in the Presidency, or such other time as they appoint.

The pattern is exactly that of section 13 of the Regulating Act: the Act authorises, the letters patent create. Say it that way and you have the relationship between the Act of 1861 and the Letters Patent of 1862 and 1865, which is the subject of the next chapter.

Section 2: who could be a judge, and the two thirds rule

Section 2 provides that each High Court shall consist of a Chief Justice and as many judges, not exceeding fifteen, as Her Majesty may appoint, selected from four classes:

1. Barristers of not less than five years' standing;
2. Members of the Covenanted Civil Service of not less than ten years' standing who have served as zillah judges, or exercised the like powers, for at least three of those years;
3. Persons who have held judicial office not inferior to that of Principal Sadar Ameen or judge of a Small Causes Court for not less than five years;
4. Persons who have been pleaders of a Sadar Court or a High Court for not less than ten years, a pleader of a Sadar Court qualifying only if admitted as a pleader of a High Court.