Gujarat High Court
The Gujarat High Court is the High Court of the state of Gujarat. It was established on 1 May 1960 under the Bombay Re-organisation Act, 1960 after the state of Gujarat split from Bombay State.
Gujarat High Court | |
---|---|
The Gujarat High Court Building | |
Established | 1960 |
Location | Ahmedabad, Gujarat |
Coordinates | 23.0802°N 72.5244°E |
Composition method | Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state. |
Authorized by | Constitution of India |
Appeals to | Supreme Court of India |
Judge term length | mandatory retirement by age of 62 |
Number of positions | 52 (Permanent 39; Additional 13) |
Website | http://gujarathighcourt.nic.in/ |
Chief Justice | |
Currently | Vikram Nath |
Since | 10 September 2019 |
The seat of the court is Ahmedabad. The present strength of the Gujarat High court is 27 against sanctioned strength of 52.
Establishment
This high court was established on 1 May 1960 as a result of bifurcation of the former State of Bombay into two States of Maharashtra and Gujarat. The High Court started functioning near Akashwani, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad. The High Court has later shifted to the new building at Sola, Ahmedabad, from 16 January 1999.
Jurisdiction
The Gujarat High Court has jurisdiction over the entire state of Gujarat. It has jurisdiction on all district, administrative and other courts in Gujarat. This high court is a Court of record and empowered to punish anyone for contempt of court.
Powers
Unlike Union Judiciary, the state judiciary possesses wide powers which include powers such as Appellate, Second Appellate in some cases, Revisionary, Review etc. It also has power to issue various writs to courts and authority under its jurisdiction. Intra-Court appeals, when permissible under Clause - 15 of Letters Patent, also lie within the same court from decision of a Single Judge to a Division Bench which comprises two Judges. It has power of superintendence on all courts under it under Article 227 of the Constitution of India. The High Courts are also empowered to hear Public Interest Litigations.
The Chief Justice
The bench of high court is presided by the Chief Justice on administrative side. They are appointed by President of India under warrant. However, the president is required to consult the Governor of Gujarat and the Chief Justice of India before making such appointment. The Governor of Gujarat administers the oath of office at the time of appointment. The present Chief Justice of the court is Justice Vikram Nath. Various benches are constituted depending upon the requirements of that High Court. These benches usually consist of division benches (two judges) and benches presided over by single judges. A roster is maintained by the High Court to assign the matters between various benches. Chief Justices in all the High Courts as also the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are masters of the roster.
Judges
All judges of the high court are appointed by the President of India after recommendation by the Supreme Court Collegium. They hold constitutional post and there are ample safeguards provided in the constitution to ensure the independence of the judiciary. Any judge can resign by writing to the President of India. Terms of appointment of judges cannot be altered to their disadvantage after their appointment.
Qualifications
The following are qualifications to be judge of Gujarat High Court or any other High Court in India.
- The individual must be citizen of India.
and
- The individual must have held a judicial office in India for at least ten years; or
- Been advocate in any high court or two or more courts in succession for at least 10 years.
The Bench
The present strength of Gujarat High court is 27 against sanctioned strength of 52 posts which includes 39 permanent posts and 13 additional posts.[1]
Following is the list of the Hon'ble Judges who currently preside over various benches of this High Court in the order of seniority.
- Hon'ble Mr. Chief Justice Vikram Nath (CJ)
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice R M Chhaya
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice J B Pardiwala
- Hon'ble Ms. Justice Bela Trivedi
- Hon'ble Ms. Justice Sonia Gokani
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice A J Desai
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice N V Anjaria
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice Paresh Upadhyay
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice S H Vora
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice G R Udhwani
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice A G Uraizee
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice R P Dholaria
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice Vipul M Pancholi
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice A J Shastri
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice Biren A. Vaishnav
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice A Y Kogje
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice A S Supehia
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice B N Karia
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice Umesh A Trivedi
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice A C Rao
- Hon'ble Dr. Justice A P Thaker
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice B D Karia
- Hon'ble Ms. Justice S K Vishen
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice Ilesh J Vora
- Hon'ble Ms. Justice Gita Gopi
- Hon'ble Dr. Justice A C Joshi
- Hon'ble Mr. Justice R M Sareen
Former Chief Justices[2]
# | Chief Justice | Tenure | |
---|---|---|---|
Start | End | ||
1 | Sunderlal Trikamlal Desai | 1 May 1960 | 25 January 1961 |
2 | Kantilal Thakoredas Desai | 26 January 1961 | 22 May 1963 |
3 | Jaishanker Manilal Shelat | 31 May 1963 | 24 February 1966 |
4 | Nomanbhai Mahmedbhai Miabhoy | 21 February 1966 | 15 September 1967 |
5 | P. N. Bhagwati | 16 September 1967 | 17 July 1973 |
6 | Bipinchandra Jivanlal Diwan | 18 July 1973 | 1 July 1976 |
7 | Seshareddi Obul Reddi | 7 July 1976 | 18 August 1977 |
(6) | Bipinchandra Jivanlal Diwan | 28 August 1977 | 19 August 1981 |
8 | Manharlal Pranlal Thakkar | 20 August 1981 | 15 March 1983 |
9 | Padmanabham Subramanian Poti | 28 September 1983 | 1 February 1985 |
10 | Puliyangudi Ramaiyapillai Gokulakrishnan | 21 March 1985 | 12 August 1990 |
11 | Ganendra Narayan Ray | 2 December 1990 | 7 October 1991 |
12 | S Nainar Sundaram | 15 June 1992 | 13 December 1993 |
13 | Bhupinder Nath Kirpal | 14 December 1993 | 11 September 1995 |
14 | Gurudas Datta Kamat | 1 July 1996 | 4 January 1997 |
15 | Kumaran Sreedharan | 20 October 1997 | 3 June 1998 |
16 | Konakuppakattil Gopinathan Balakrishnan | 16 July 1998 | 7 September 1999 |
17 | D M Dharmadhikari | 25 January 2000 | 4 March 2002 |
18 | Daya Saran Sinha | 17 March 2002 | 18 March 2003 |
19 | Bhawani Singh | 25 August 2003 | 27 March 2006 |
20 | Y. R. Meena | 3 February 2007 | 30 June 2008 |
21 | K S Panicker Radhakrishnan | 4 September 2008 | 16 November 2009 |
22 | S J Mukhopadhaya | 9 December 2009 | 13 September 2011 |
23 | Bhaskar Bhattacharya | 21 July 2012 | 28 September 2014 |
24 | R. Subhash Reddy | 12 February 2016 | 01 November 2018 |
- | Akil Abdulhamid Kureshi (acting) | 2 November 2018 | 14 November 2018 |
- | Anantkumar Surendraray Dave (acting) | 15 November 2018 | 9 September 2019 |
25 | Vikram Nath | 10 September 2019 | Incumbent |
See also
- High Courts of India
Notes
- "High Court of Gujarat". gujarathighcourt.nic.in. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
- "High Court of Gujarat: Former Honourable Chief Justices". gujarathighcourt.nic.in. Retrieved 4 December 2017.