Indian Legal System and Its Relevance for Marginalized and Disadvantaged Groups
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Regulating Act. Since then the British rulers took interest in setting up of courts to administer criminal and civil justice. The Government of India Act of 1935 had a provision to set up a Federal Court with original and appelate jurisdiction. In 1950, the Constitution of India, provided an elaborate structure of legal system starting with the Supreme Court as an apex legal institution down upto the court at the panchayat level. Structure of the Indian Judiciary and different Courts of Appeal Under our Constitution, there is one unified judicial system and a hierarchy of courts with Supreme Court as the highest court of land for Union as well as the States. We have High Courts in the states and subordinate courts respectively. Besides High Courts and the courts constituted under any law, there are District and Sessions Judges courts in each district and Metropolitan magistrates in metropolitan areas. The organisation of subordinate judiciary varies from State to State, but the essential nature of the hierarchy of court is as, it is presented in the flow chart. 1)
Chief Justice and 25 other judges
2)
At the end of 2003, there were over 536 Judges in the High Courts
3)
At the end of 2003, there were 2107 District & Session Judges, and 1476 Senior Civil Judges and CJM
4)
At the end of 2003, there were about 4,807 Munsif Subordinate Judges.