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 and colloquially 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.

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. In 1875 it shifted back to Allahabad. The former High Court was located at the Accountant General's office at the University of Allahabad complex.
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.
Until 2000, what is now called Uttarakhand was part of Uttar Pradesh, and was therefore subject to the jurisdiction of Allahabad High Court. When the new state was created, Allahabad High Court ceased to have jurisdiction over the districts in it. The Uttarakhand High Court was established on 9 November 2000 with jurisdiction over the new state.

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.
LocationTypeStatusNo. of Sitting Judges
PrayagrajPrincipal seat81
LucknowBench28

Demand for Meerut High Court Bench

Residents of Western Uttar Pradesh have also been long demanding a high court bench in Meerut. 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 bench. Eight other High Courts—such as those at Delhi, Shimla, Chandigarh—are closer to litigants of West Uttar Pradesh than their own High Court in Prayagraj. In fact, Lahore High Court is closer to western Uttar Pradesh than Allahabad High Court.

Reporting and citation

Journals that report Allahabad High Court Judgements include
  1. ,
  2. Allahabad Law Journal
  3. Allahabad Law Reports
  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
  15. All India Judicial Interpretation on Crimes

    High Court service

The Registry at High Court of Judicature at Allahabad is broadly divided into five Cadres:
  • General office 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
  • Physiotherapist
  • Court Manager

    Commemorative postal stamps

Commemorative stamps released by India Post:

Composition

The court has a Sanctioned strength of 160 judges. Justice Arun Bhansali is the current Chief Justice of the High Court.

Former Chief Justices

Judges elevated as Chief Justices

This sections contains list of only those judges elevated as chief justices whose parent high court is Allahabad. This includes those judges who, at the time of appointment as chief justice, may not be serving in Allahabad High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of appointment as chief justice were serving in Allahabad High Court but does not have Allahabad as their Parent High Court.
;Key
  • Resigned
  • Elevated to Supreme Court

    Judges elevated to Supreme Court

This section includes the list of only those judges whose parent high court was Allahabad. This includes those judges who, at the time of elevation to Supreme Court of India, may not be serving in Allahabad High Court but this list does not include judges who at the time of elevation were serving in Allahabad High Court but does not have Allahabad as their Parent High Court.
;Key
  • Resigned
  • Died in office

    Critical assessment

Case load

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, 71,261 cases in West Bengal and 12,538 cases in Telangana.
A bench at Meerut 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.
The NCR planning committee recommended setting up a High Court bench in Meerut with utmost priority.

Cited sources