Indian High Court Act1861, High Court under GOI Act 1915, High Court under GOI Act 1935

In 1862 Calcutta, Bombay and Madras each got a new court with a name you would still recognise today — a High Court. It replaced not one but two older courts at a stroke, the Crown's Supreme Court and the Company's Sadar Adalat, and it is the direct ancestor of the High Court that will one day hear your own first case. This topic follows that one institution through three statutes across seventy-four years.

In two minutes

The Indian High Courts Act, 1861 finally merged the Supreme Courts and Sadar Adalats into single High Courts with combined jurisdiction, the Government of India Act, 1915 consolidated the law governing them into one statute, and the Government of India Act, 1935 strengthened their independence and created the Federal Court above them.

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