People like me, who are not familiar with the hierarchy of Courts in India, especially, those courts, which are subordinate to High Courts, might find the following Post helpful.

Like we are expected to be familiar with our Fundamental Rights and have basic knowledge of law, we should be clear, as well, in our understanding in so far as different courts were concerned.

When we read/watch news items in print and/or media, about civil and criminal cases, especially at courts, which are sub-ordinate to High Courts some of us are a bit confused as we are not aware of the structure and thus have difficulty in understanding and sometimes find it hard in putting the news in context – as there are different courts existing both at District and Metropolitan levels –e.g. District Court, City Civil Court, Sessions Court, Metropolitan Magistrate court, Judicial Magistrate Court (I Class), Judicial Magistrate (II class), etc., presided byDistrict Judge, Principal Judge, Sessions Judge, Metropolitan Magistrate, Judicial Magistrate, etc.

For instance, the headline news “District courts have 10-year backlog” in Hindu newspaper, as recent as 27 September 2015 – the news item, quoting National Judicial Data Grid states that “there are 2 crore (20 million) cases pending before district courts across the country as on 25 September 2015 and two-thirds of them were criminal cases; ten per cent of these cases had been pending for more than 10 years……”.

What are these Courts with so much backlog ?

The highest court in each district is the District and Sessions Court.  When it exercises its jurisdiction on Code of Civil Procedures it is called District Civil Court.  The District court is also a court of Sessions when it exercises its jurisdiction on criminal matters under Code of Criminal Procedure.

The District and Sessions Judge is often referred to as “District Judge” when he/she presides over civil matters and “Sessions Judge” when he/she presides over criminal matters.

The District Judge is also called “Metropolitan Sessions Judge” when he/she is presiding over a district court in a city which is designated “Metropolitan area” by the State Government(Source:Wikipedia)

Though it looks that we have too much to digest, the Flowchart below would enable us to (i) clarify/confirm our understanding and (ii) put the recent news in context.

When I tried to educate myself using the information available on the Internet, I came across a few Flowcharts illustrating the hierarchy of Courts in India. They were not that user friendly, at least for layperson, amateurs like some of us. Therefore I thought a simpler version would go a long way in enabling non-professionals like me understand the hierarchy better.A clear understanding of the structure would enable us to know, subsequently, the roles of these different courts, as well.

This Flowchart is based on my understanding of the hierarchy of Courts in India.

As you will see, this simple Flowchart illustrates sub-ordinate courts– both Civil and Criminal courts – at (i) Metropolitan and (ii) District levels.Besides, it illustrates the hierarchy in terms of (i) Labor Courts and (ii) Family Courts together with specialized tribunals.

Flowchart 1:

The above Flowchart focuses the subordinate courts by Metropolitan and District levels.  However, if required, the hierarchy can be illustrated in a different manner for those who want to have the structure by (i) Civil Courtsat (a) Metropolitan and (b) District levels and (ii) Criminal Courts at (a) Metropolitan and (b) District levels. i.e.

Flowchart 2:

 

As you will see, Flowchart 2 is incomplete, as it was just to show that the hierarchy can be illustrated differently. Those who like the Flowchart 2 can complete it using the inputs in Flowchart 1.

As I mentioned earlier this is a simple Flowchart.   There may well be others who have looked at the hierarchy more comprehensively and attempted to capture all relevant details on a Flowchart including Revenue Courts, Consumer Courts, Trial Courts, etc.   As I am not clear on how these courts relate themselves on the hierarchy, I would love to learn and benefit from those who have relatively better understanding of the structure.