Hierarchy of Courts in India - Lexology https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=49df7...

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Hierarchy of Courts in India

India June 27 2022

Supreme Court
The Supreme Court has original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. Its exclusive
original jurisdiction includes any dispute between the Centre and State(s) or between
States as well as matters concerning enforcement of fundamental rights of individuals.
The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court can be invoked by a certificate granted
by the High Court concerned in respect of any judgment, decree, or final order of a High
Court, in both civil and criminal cases, involving substantial questions of law as to the
interpretation of the Constitution or any law. The appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme
Court can also be invoked through the residuary power of Special Leave Petition, which
is to be exercised only in cases when any substantial question of law is involved, or gross
injustice has been done. Supreme Court decisions are binding on all Courts/Tribunals in
the country and act as precedence for lower courts. Under Article 141 of the
Constitution, all courts in India are bound to follow the decision of the Supreme Court as
the rule of law. Further, Article 142 of the Constitution empowers the Supreme Court to
pass any order as may be necessary for doing complete justice between the parties. The

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Supreme Court, has over the years, frequently relied upon Article 142 to meet the ends
of justice, and introduced the concepts of absolute liability, prospective application of a
particular judgment, etc.
High Courts
High Courts have jurisdiction over the States in which they are located. There are at
present, 25 High Courts in India. However, few of the High Courts have jurisdiction over
more than one State or Union Territories: Bombay (Mumbai) High Court, Calcutta High
Court (Kolkata), Guwahati High Court, High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, Madras
(Chennai) High Court and Punjab and Haryana High Courts. For instance, the Bombay
High Court is located at Mumbai, the capital city of the State of Maharashtra. However,
its jurisdiction covers the States of Maharashtra and Goa, and the Union Territories of
Dadra and Nagar Haveli as well as Daman and Diu. Predominantly, High Courts can
exercise only writ and appellate jurisdiction, but a few High Courts have original
jurisdiction and can try suits. High Court decisions are binding on all the lower courts of
the State over which it has jurisdiction.
District Courts
District Courts in India take care of judicial matters at the District level. Headed by a
judge, these courts are administratively and judicially controlled by the High Courts of
the respective States to which the District belongs. The District Courts are subordinate
to their respective High Courts. All appeals in civil matters from the District Courts lie to
the High Court of the State. There are many secondary courts also at this level, which
work under the District Courts. There is a court of the Civil Judge as well as a court of
the Chief Judicial Magistrate. While the former takes care of the civil cases, the latter
looks into criminal cases and offences.
Lower Courts
In some states, there are some lower courts (below the district courts) called Munsif’s
courts and small causes courts. These courts only have original jurisdiction and can try
suits up to a small amount. Thus, Presidency- Small Causes Courts cannot entertain a
suit in which the amount claimed exceeds Rs. 2,000. However, in some States, civil
courts have unlimited pecuniary jurisdiction. Judicial officers in these courts are
appointed on the basis of their performance in competitive examinations held by the
various States’ Public Service Commissions.
Commercial Courts
Commercial Courts, Commercial Appellate Divisions as well as Commercial Divisions in
High Courts were constituted under Commercial Courts Act, 2015 throughout India to
specifically deal with matters pertaining to “commercial disputes” of a value more than
Rs.3,00,000, arising out of a wide range of transactions, including export/import,
maritime, franchising, distribution & licensing, consultancy, joint venture, intellectual
property, insurance, investment agreements etc. as specified in the Commercial Courts
Act, 2015. The procedure followed by Commercial Courts is different and stricter in
some aspects than the procedure as applicable to adjudication process of other civil
disputes in general.

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Tribunals
Special courts or Tribunals also exist for the sake of providing effective and speedy
justice (especially in administrative matters) as well as for specialized expertise relating
to specific kind of disputes. These Tribunals have been set up in India to look into
various matters of grave concern. The Tribunals do not have to follow any uniform
procedure as laid down under the Civil Procedure Code or the Indian Evidence Act but
they have to follow the principles of Natural Justice. The Tribunals that need a special
mention are as follows:
• Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
• Central Administrative Tribunal
• Intellectual Property Appellate Tribunal, Chennai
• Railways Claims Tribunal
• Appellate Tribunal for Electricity
• Debts Recovery Tribunal
• Central Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal
• National Company Law Tribunal
• Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal
• Competition Appellate Tribunal
For instance, the Rent Controller decides rent cases, Family Courts try matrimonial and
child custody cases, Consumer Tribunals try consumer issues, Industrial Tribunals and/
or Courts decide labour disputes, Tax Tribunals try tax issues, etc. The National
Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has been established to streamline and effectuate the
liquidation proceedings of companies, dispute resolution and compliance with certain
provisions of the Companies Act, 2013.
Alternate Dispute Resolution
An interesting feature of the Indian legal system is the existence of voluntary agencies
called Lok Adalats (Peoples’ Courts). These forums resolve disputes through methods
like Conciliation and Negotiations and are governed by the Legal Services Authorities
Act, 1987. Every award of Lok Adalats shall be deemed to be a decree of a civil court
and shall be binding on the parties to the dispute. The ADR mechanism has also proven
to be one of the most efficacious mechanisms to resolve commercial disputes of an
international nature. In India, laws relating to resolution of disputes have been amended
from time to time to facilitate speedy dispute resolution in sync with the changing times.
The Judiciary has also encouraged out-of-court settlements to alleviate the increasing
backlog of cases pending in the courts. To effectively implement the ADR mechanism,
organizations like the Indian Council of Arbitration (ICA) and the International Centre
for Alternate Dispute Resolution (ICADR) were established. The ICADR is an
autonomous organisation, working under the aegis of the Ministry of Law & Justice,
Government of India, with its headquarters at New Delhi, to promote and develop ADR
facilities and techniques in India. ICA was established in 1965 and is the apex arbitral
organisation at the national level. The main objective of the ICA is to promote amicable
and quick settlement of industrial and trade disputes by arbitration. Moreover, the
Arbitration Act, 1940 was also repealed and a new and effective arbitration system was

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introduced by the enactment of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996. This law is
based on the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL)
model of the International Commercial Arbitration Council.
In 2015, the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 was amended to bring robust
changes more particularly, structuring a model fee schedule of arbitrators, restricting
interference by Courts in arbitration cases, restricting time schedule for completion of
arbitral proceedings, provision for “Fast Track” proceedings for completion of
proceedings within 6 months. In 2019, few more amendments were introduced in the
Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996, most significantly, introduction of Arbitration
Council of India for framing policies for governing the grading of arbitrators,
accreditation of arbitrators, making recommendations to the Government of India on
various aspects.
Likewise, to make the ADR mechanism more effective and in coherence with the
demanding social scenario, the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 has also been
amended from time to time to endorse the use of ADR methods. Section 89 of the Code
of Civil Procedure, as amended in 2002, has introduced conciliation, mediation and pre-
trial settlement methodologies for effective resolution of disputes. Mediation,
conciliation, negotiation, mini trial, Lok Adalats and Banking Ombudsman have already
been accepted and recognized as effective alternative dispute-resolution methodologies.
A brief description of few widely used ADR procedures is as follows:
1. Negotiation: A non-binding procedure in which discussions between the parties
are initiated without the intervention of any third party, with the object of arriving at a
negotiated settlement of the dispute.
2. Conciliation: In this case, parties submit to the advice of a conciliator, who talks to
the each of them separately and tries to resolve their disputes. Conciliation is a non-
binding procedure in which the conciliator assists the parties to a dispute to arrive at
a mutually satisfactory and agreed settlement of the dispute.
3. Mediation: A non-binding procedure in which an impartial third party known as a
mediator tries to facilitate the resolution process but he cannot impose the resolution,
and the parties are free to decide according to their convenience and terms.
4. Arbitration: It is a method of resolution of disputes outside the court, wherein the
parties refer the dispute to one or more persons appointed as an arbitrator(s) who
reviews the case and imposes a decision that is legally binding on both parties.
Usually, the arbitration clauses are mentioned in commercial agreements wherein the
parties agree to resort to an arbitration process in case of disputes that may arise in
future regarding the contract terms and conditions.

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