| Karnataka High Court | |
|---|---|
High Court Building |
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| Established | 1881 |
| Jurisdiction | Karnataka |
| Location | Bangalore |
| Composition method | Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state. |
| Authorized by | Constitution of India |
| Decisions are appealed to | Supreme Court of India |
| Judge term length | Till 62 years of age |
| Number of positions | 40 |
| Website | http://karnatakajudiciary.kar.nic.in/ |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Vikramajit Sen (Acting) |
| Since | 2010 |
The Karnataka High Court is the High Court of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located in Bangalore, the capital city of Karnataka. The High Court functions out of a red brick building known as Attara Kacheri. It is in front of Vidhana Soudha, which is the seat of the legislature of Karnataka.
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The history of the Karnataka High Court can be traced back to the year 1884 when the Chief Court of Mysore was created with three judges and was designated as the highest court of appeal, reference and revision in the State of Mysore, the earlier name of Karnataka.[1] The court had District Courts, Sub-ordinate Judges' Courts and Munsiff Courts to assist it on civil cases and a Court of Sessions, District Magistrate and First, Second and Third Class Magistrates to assist it on criminal cases.[2] In 1881, the office of the Chief Judge was created and the designated person had the utmost authority in the court. In 1930, it was renamed as the High Court of Mysore and the Chief Judge was given the new name of Chief Justice. In 1973, it got its present name of Karnataka High Court.
The High Court is located in a building called as Attara Kacheri (meaning Eighteen offices). It is a two-storied building, red in colour and has been built in the neoclassical style. The construction of the building was supervised by Rao Bahadur Arcot Narayanaswami Mudaliar and completed in the year 1868. It was earlier named as Old Public Offices and got its name of Attara Kacheri when the eighteen departments in the general and revenue secretariat of the Mysore Government were shifted here from their crowded premises in Tipu Sultan's summer palace. There was a proposal to demolish this building in the year 1982.[3] However, a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed in order to save this old building from getting demolished. This was the first PIL to be filed in the Karnataka High court and the case was heard in the very building that was supposed to be demolished.[4] In August 1984, the judges M. N. Venkatachaliah and Vittal Rao pronounced a judgement that stayed the demolition.
The High Court has a sanctioned judge strength of 40.[5] Many judges have presided in the High Court with four of them including M. N. Venkatachaliah going on to become the Chief Justice of India[6] and at least 13 of them including N. Venkatachala being appointed as judges in the Supreme Court of India.[7]
Raja Dharma Praveena Diwan Bahadur P Mahadevayya, Nittoor Srinivasa Rau, Sam Piroj Bharucha and G. T. Nanavati were some of the Chief Justices who presided over this court. Presently, Justice Vikramajit Sen was sworn in as the Chief Justice following the elevation of Chief Justice J S Khehar to the Supreme Court of India.
| # | Chief Justice | Term |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | R. Venkataramaiah | 1 November 1956 – 16 July 1957 |
| 2 | S. R. Das Gupta | 25 July 1957 – 13 August 1961 |
| 3 | Nittoor Srinivasa Rau | 29 March 1962 – 7 August 1963 |
| Acting | H. Hombe Gowda | 20 January 1964 – 1 August 1969 |
| Acting | A. R. Somanath Iyer | 1 August 1969 – 30 August 1969 |
| Acting | M. Sadasivayya | 31 August 1969 – 23 October 1969 |
| Acting | A. R. Somanath Iyer | 24 October 1969 – 22 November 1969 |
| 4 | A. R. Somanath Iyer | 23 November 1969 – 29 December 1969 |
| 5 | M. Sadasivayya | 30 December 1969 – 16 September 1970 |
| 6 | A. Narayana Pai | 17 September 1970 – 6 June 1973 |
| 7 | G. K. Govinda Bhat | 7 June 1973 – 14 December 1977 |
| 8 | D. M. Chandrashekar | 22 March 1978 – 25 September 1982 |
| Acting | K. Bhimaiah | 26 September 1982 – 27 October 1982 |
| 9 | K. Bhimaiah | 28 October 1982 – 10 April 1983 |
| 10 | V. S. Malimath | 6 February 1984 – 24 October 1985 |
| Acting | Kalmanje Jagannatha Shetty | 24 October 1985 – 27 August 1986 |
| 11 | Prem Chand Jain | 28 August 1986 – 16 September 1989 |
| 12 | S. Mohan | 26 October 1989 – 7 October 1991 |
| 13 | S. P. Bharucha | 1 January 1991 – 30 June 1992 |
| 14 | S. B. Majumdar | 2 July 1993 – 13 September 1994 |
| 15 | G. T. Nanavati | 28 September 1994 – 4 March 1995 |
| 16 | M. L. Pendse | 28 July 1995 – 25 March 1996 |
| 17 | S. A. Hakeem | 3 May 1996 – 9 May 1996 |
| 18 | R. P. Sethi | 29 June 1996 – 6 January 1999 |
| Acting | Y. Bhaskar Rao | 17 January 1999 – 8 March 1999 |
| 19 | Y. Bhaskar Rao | 9 March 1999 – 26 June 2000 |
| 20 | P. V. Reddi | 21 October 2000 – 16 August 2001 |
| 21 | N. K. Jain | 31 August 2001 – 20 October 2004 |
| 22 | N. K. Sodhi | 19 November 2004 – 29 November 2005 |
| 23 | Cyriac Joseph | 7 January 2006 – 6 July 2008 |
| 24 | P. D. Dinakaran | 8 August 2008 – 7 August 2010 |
| 25 | J S Khehar | 8 August 2010– 12 September 2011 |
The Karnataka High Court bench is currently functional only in Bangalore. There has been a long standing demand for an additional bench in the northern region of Karnataka. The main reason being the location of Bangalore in the south-east corner of the state causes great hardship for people who have to visit the High Court from the distant northern regions of the state. This issue led to lot of agitations including boycott of court proceedings by lawyers in the northern region of Karnataka. The demand was finally met in the year 2006 when it was decided that circuit benches of the High Court would be set up in Dharwad and Gulbarga.[8] Accordingly circuit benches were set up in Dharwad and Gulbarga. They were inaugurated on 4 July 2008 and 5 July 2008 respectively
In late 2002, 14 newspapers and periodicals reported that three judges from the High Court of Karnataka were allegedly involved in a sex scandal in Mysore. A high-level judicial inquiry committee was established by the Chief Justice. Later, the committee acquitted the judges as they could not find any substantive evidence.[9][10][11]
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