Madras High Court

Madras High Court
Madras High Court Building
Interactive map of Madras High Court
13°05′12.8″N80°17′16.4″E / 13.086889°N 80.287889°E / 13.086889; 80.287889
Established	26 June 1862;163 years ago (1862-06-26)
Jurisdiction	Tamil Nadu and Puducherry
Location	Principal bench Chennai Additional bench Madurai
Coordinates	13°05′12.8″N80°17′16.4″E / 13.086889°N 80.287889°E / 13.086889; 80.287889
Motto	Satyameva Jayate
Composition method	Presidential with confirmation of Chief Justice of India and Governor of respective state
Authorised by	Constitution of India
Appeals to	Supreme Court of India
Appeals from	Subordinate Courts of Tamil Nadu
Judge term length	Mandatory retirement at age 62
Number of positions	75 (Permanent 56; Addl. 19)
Language	English, Tamil
Website	hcmadras.tn.gov.in
Chief Justice
Currently	Manindra Mohan Shrivastava
Since	21 July 2025

The High Court of Judicature at Madras is a High Court located in Chennai, India. It has appellate jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is one of the oldest high courts of India along with Calcutta High Court in Kolkata ^{[1] [2] [3]} and Bombay High Court in Mumbai. The Madras High Court is one of four charter high courts of colonial India established in the four Presidency Towns of Madras, Bombay, Allahabad and Calcutta by letters patent granted by Queen Victoria, dated 26 June 1862. It exercises original jurisdiction over the city of Chennai, as well as extraordinary original jurisdiction, civil and criminal, under the letters patent and special original jurisdiction for the issue of writs under the Constitution of India. ^{[4] [5]} Covering 107 acres, the court complex is one of the largest in the world, second only to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. The four-storey administrative building serves hundreds of litigants every day.

The High Court consists of the Chief Justice and 74 other judges. ^{[5] [6]}

History

From 1817 to 1862, the Supreme Court of Madras was opposite the Chennai Beach railway station. From 1862 to 1892, the High Court was also housed there. The present buildings were officially inaugurated on 12 July 1892, when the then Madras Governor, Beilby, Baron Wenlock, handed over the key to then Chief Justice Sir Arthur Collins. ^[7]

The statue of Manuneedhi Cholan in the Madras High Court premises

British India's three presidency towns of Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai), and Calcutta (Kolkata) were each granted a High Court by letters patent dated 26 June 1862. ^[8] The letters patent were issued by Queen Victoria under the authority of the British parliament's Indian High Courts Act 1861. The three courts are unique, established under British royal charter in contrast with the other high courts, which were established under the Indian Constitution. The Constitution of India recognises the older courts.

The Madras High Court was formed by merging the Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras, and the Sadr Diwani Adalat. The Court was required to decide cases in accordance with justice, equity and good conscience. The earliest judges included Holloway, Innes, and Morgan. The first Indian to sit on the High Court was Justice T. Muthuswamy Iyer. Other early Indian judges included Justices V. Krishnaswamy Iyer and P. R. Sundaram Iyer.

The Madras High Court was a pioneer in Original Side jurisdiction reform in favor of Indian practitioners as early as the 1870s.

The history means that the decisions of the British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are still binding on it, provided that the ratio of a case has not been overruled by the Supreme Court of India.

Although the city was renamed from Madras to Chennai in 1996, the Court continued as the Madras High Court. The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous resolution appealing to the Central Government to rename the court as High Court of Tamil Nadu since the Court serves the whole state. ^[9]

Court complex

Madras High Court, Chennai

The High Court complex is located in the southern end of George Town. The building was constructed after relocating temples on the land. The building now used exclusively by the High Court was built to also house the Courts of Small Causes and the City Civil Court. These were subsequently shifted to other buildings on the campus. ^[10]

The High Court building is an example of Indo-Saracenic architecture. Construction began in October 1888 and was completed in 1892 following the design prepared by J. W. Brassington, ^[10] and later under the guidance of architect Henry Irwin, ^[11] who completed it with the assistance of J. H. Stephens.

Brassington initially prepared a plan to construct a building with 11 court halls at an estimate of ₹945,000. Six were meant for the High Court, four for the Small Causes Court, and one for the City Civil Court. An additional building to house lawyers’ chambers was added to the plan, with a first floor walkway to connect it to the main building, increasing the budget to ₹1,298,163. Complementing a 125-feet-tall standalone lighthouse that was already on the site, a dioptric light was built on the 142-feet-high main tower of the building, raising the tower's height to 175 feet. ^[10]

Save for the steel girders and some ornamental tiles, almost all the material for the construction was procured locally. Brick and terracotta were brought from government brickyards. Most of the construction was executed by local artisans trained at the School of Arts. ^[10]

The High Court building was damaged in the shelling of Madras by SMS Emden on 22 September 1914, at the beginning of the First World War. It remains one of the few Indian buildings to have been damaged by a German attack.

The building offers several points of architectural interest. The painted ceilings and the stained glass doors are masterpieces. The old lighthouse is housed within the High Court campus but is poorly maintained and in disrepair.

The boundaries of the complex are marked by Prakasam Road (formerly Broadway) and Rajaji Road (the old North Beach Road), stretching northward from the statue of Rajaji in the northeast and the statue of T. Prakasamgaru in the southwest within the complex. The complex houses the largest number of courts in Asia. ^[12]

Panoramic view of the High Court and its surroundings

The city civil and sessions courts, which are located inside the High Court campus, are in two blocks, namely, the main and annexe buildings. Some of the city civil courts are located at Additional City Civil Court Complex at Allikulam Commercial Complex in Park Town and M. Singaravelar Maligai in George Town. The District and Session Court for Exclusive Trial of Bomb Blast Cases is located at Karayanchavadi in the neighbourhood of Poonamallee, and the Commercial Court is located in the neighbourhood of Egmore. ^[13]

Bench

The current Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Manindra Mohan Shrivastava. The court houses 63 judges, including the Chief Justice. They exercise civil, criminal, writ, testamentary and admiralty jurisdiction. ^[14] The Madurai Bench began functioning in 2004.

The vestiges of the colonial High Court characterise the premises. Justices of the Madras High Court are led by orderlies who bear a ceremonial mace made of silver. Most High Courts and the Supreme Court of India either never had the practice or abandoned it. ^[15]

Related publications

Madras Law Journal

The Madras High Court is the birthplace of organised legal reporting in India. It is home to the Madras Law Journal, ^[16] which was the first journal dedicated to reporting texts of judgments of the High Court. It started in 1891.

The High Courts, c. 1905

The Saturday Club met every week. It was started at the house of the Vakil Bar's senior member Sir S. Subramania Iyer in Mylapore in 1888. All leading members of the Madras Bar took part. At one meeting, it was decided to start The Madras Law Journal, which was inspired by other newly established periodicals such as Law Quarterly Review, started by Sir Frederick Pollock in England in 1885 and The Harvard Law Review established by Harvard Law School Association in 1887.

The objectives of the journal were laid out in the preface of the first issue:

In addition to giving our own reports of the decisions of the High Courts in Madras and other places, we hope to place before our readers translations of various Hindu Law Books which remain yet untranslated, insofar as they have bearing on questions which practically arise for decision every day in our Courts of Justice. We propose further from time to time, to place side by side the conflicting decisions of the various Courts in India on the same point in the hope that such procedure will enable the Courts to act in greater harmony than they do at present in the interpretation of Acts and enunciation of general principles of law and when this is not possible, to enable the Legislature to bring about such harmony by removing the ambiguities which may have given rise to such discordant views.

The Madras Law Journal is known for its quickness and reporting accuracy and its discriminating selection of cases to be reported. It occupies a premier place among Indian legal periodicals.

Madras Weekly Notes (criminal and civil)

Madras Weekly Notes is a law journal reporting criminal judgements of the Madras High Court from 1910 to till date.

Citations are formatted as, e.g., "1929 1 MWN(Cr.) 1", where (left to right) 1929 is the year, 1 is the volume, "MWN(Cr.)" is the abbreviated journal name, and "1" is the page number.

Journals

Journals that record cases include Current Tamil Nadu Cases,Current Writ Cases, and Tamil Nadu Motor Accident Cases.

Madurai Bench

Established in 2004, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court handles cases in the fourteen southern districts of Tamil Nadu, as the court is located in the far-northern capital. The bench is located in Madurai, and has the Kanyakumari, Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi, Tenkasi, Madurai, Dindigul, Ramanathapuram, Virudhunagar, Theni, Sivaganga, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Tiruchirappalli and Karur districts under its jurisdiction.

The court complex has 12 court halls, and now increased upto 25 halls furnished on the model of the court halls in the Supreme Court, the Delhi and the Madras High Court.

The court, since its inauguration on 24 July 2004, has accelerated the legal process in the southern districts. ^[17]

List of chief justices

Watercolour "Holy men outside Sir Thomas Strange house." In 1800, Strange became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Fort St. George (Madras), British India.

Supreme Court

#	Chief Justice	Term
1	Sir Thomas Andrew Lumisden Strange	1801–1816
2	Sir John Henry Newbolt	1816–1820
3	Sir Edmond Stanley	1820–1825
4	Sir Ralph Palmer	1825–1835
5	Sir Robert Buckley Comyn	1835–1842
6	Sir Edward John Gambier	1842–1850
7	Sir Christopher Rawlinson	1850–1859
8	Sir Henry Davison	1859–1860
9	Sir Colley Harman Scotland	1860–1861

High Court (British Administration)

#	Chief Justice	Term
9	Sir Colley Harman Scotland	1861–1871
10	Sir Walter Morgan	1871–1879
11	Sir Charles Arthur Turner	1879–1885
12	Sir Arthur John Hammond Collins	1885–1898
13	Charles Arnold White	1899–1914
14	John Edward Power Wallis	1914–1921
15	Sir Walter George Salis Schwabe	1921–1924
16	Sir Murray Coutts-Trotter	1924–1929
17	Sir Horace Owen Compton Beasley	1929–1937
18	Sir Alfred Henry Lionel Leach	1937–1947
19	Sir Fredrick William Gentle	1947–1948

High Court (Indian Administration)

S. No.	Chief Justice	Date of Appointment	Date of Retirement
20	P. V. Rajamannar	22 April 1948	9 May 1961
21	S. Ramachandra Iyer	16 September 1961	1 November 1964
22	Palagani Chandra Reddy	15 February 1965	30 June 1966
23	M. Anantanarayanan	1 July 1966	30 April 1969
24	Kuppuswami Naidu Veeraswami	1 May 1969	11 March 1976
25	Palapatti Sadaya Goundar Kailasam	8 April 1976	2 January 1977
26	Padmanbhapillay Govindan Nair	3 January 1977	28 May 1978
27	Tayi Ramaprasada Rao	29 May 1978	5 November 1979
28	Muhammad Kassim Muhammad Ismail	6 November 1979	9 July 1981
29	Ballabh Narayan Singh	12 March 1982	24 January 1984
30	Madhukar Narhar Chandurkar	2 April 1984	13 March 1988
31	Shanmughasundaram Mohan	19 October 1989	24 October 1989
32	Adarsh Sein Anand	1 November 1989	17 November 1991
33	Kanta Kumari Bhatnagar	15 June 1992	14 November 1992
34	Kudarikoti Annadanayya Swamy	1 July 1993	19 March 1997
35	Manmohan Singh Liberhan	7 July 1997	27 December 1998
36	Ashok Chhotelal Agarwal	24 May 1999	26 August 1999
37	K. G. Balakrishnan	9 September 1999	15 June 2000
38	Nagendra Kumar Jain	13 September 2000	30 August 2001
39	B. Subhashan Reddy	12 September 2001	20 November 2004
40	Markandey Katju	28 November 2004	10 October 2005
41	Ajit Prakash Shah	12 November 2005	9 May 2008
42	Asok Kumar Ganguly	19 May 2008	15 December 2008 [18]
43	Hemant Laxman Gokhale	9 March 2009	28 April 2010
44	M. Y. Eqbal	11 June 2010	21 December 2012
45	Rajesh Kumar Agrawal	24 October 2013	16 February 2014
46	Sanjay Kishan Kaul	26 July 2014	16 February 2017 [19]
47	Indira Banerjee	5 April 2017	6 August 2018
48	Vijaya Kamlesh Tahilramani	12 August 2018	6 September 2019
49	Amreshwar Pratap Sahi	11 November 2019	31 December 2020
50	Sanjib Banerjee	4 January 2021	16 November 2021
51	Munishwar Nath Bhandari	14 February 2022	12 September 2022
52	Sanjay V. Gangapurwala	28 May 2023	23 May 2024
53	R. Mahadevan (acting)	24 May 2024	17 July 2024
54	D. Krishnakumar (acting)	18 July 2024	26 September 2024
55	K. R. Shriram	27 September 2024	21 July 2025
56	Manindra Mohan Shrivastava	21 July 2025	Incumbent

Judges

The Madras High Court sits at Chennai and has jurisdiction over the state of Tamil Nadu. It is permitted to have a maximum of 75 judges, of which 56 may be permanently appointed and 19 may be additionally appointed. Currently, it has 66 judges. ^[20]

See also: List of sitting judges of High Courts of India § Madras High Court

Judges elevated to Supreme Court

Currently serving

#	Name of the Judge	Image	Date of Appointment as Judge	Date of elevation to Supreme Court	Date of Retirement	Tenure			Immediately preceding office
						As HC Judge	As Supreme Court Judge	Total tenure (including both SC and HC)
1	M. M. Sundresh		31 March 2009	31 August 2021	20 July 2027	12 years, 152 days	5 years, 324 days	18 years, 111 days	Judge of Madras HC
2	R. Mahadevan		25 October 2013	18 July 2024	9 June 2028	10 years, 266 days	3 years, 328 days	14 years, 228 days	Acting CJ of Madras HC

Former Judges

#	Name of the Judge	Image	Date of Appointment as Judge	Date of elevation to Supreme Court	Date of Retirement	Tenure			Immediately preceding office	Remarks
						As HC Judge	As Supreme Court Judge	Total tenure (including both SC and HC)
1	Mandakolathur Patanjali Sastri		15 March 1939	26 January 1950	3 January 1954	8 years, 266 days	3 years, 343 days	14 years, 295 days	Elevated to Federal Court of India on 6 December 1947	2nd Chief Justice of India
2	Nagapudi Chandrasekhara Aiyar		16 July 1941	23 September 1950	24 January 1953	6 years, 194 days	2 years, 124 days	8 years, 318 days	Elevated after retirement as HC judge on 24 January 1950
3	Tirunelveli Lakshmanasuri Venkatarama Iyer		28 July 1947	1 September 1956	16 October 1957	9 years, 55 days	1 year, 46 days	10 years, 101 days	Elevated after retirement as HC judge on 24 November 1953	Died in office
4	Parakulangara Govinda Menon		June 1948	29 August 1959	2 January 1965		5 years, 132 days		Judge of Madras HC
5	Koka Subba Rao		22 March 1948	31 January 1958	11 April 1967	9 years, 315 days	9 years, 71 days	19 years, 21 days	CJ of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh HC	9th Chief Justice of India
6	Narsimha Rajagopala Ayyangar		November 1953	27 July 1960	14 December 1964		4 years, 141 days		Elevated after retirement as HC judge on 14 December 1959
7	A. Alagiriswami		11 August 1966	17 October 1972	16 October 1975	6 years, 67 days	3 years, 0 days	9 years, 67 days	Judge of Madras HC
8	Palapatti Sadaya Goundar Kailasam		20 October 1960	3 January 1977	11 September 1980	16 years, 75 days	3 years, 253 days	19 years, 328 days	17th CJ of Madras HC
9	Appajee Varadarajan		15 February 1973	10 December 1980	16 August 1985	7 years, 299 days	4 years, 250 days	12 years, 183 days	Judge of Madras HC
10	Sivasankar Natarajan		15 February 1973	10 March 1986	28 October 1989	13 years, 23 days	3 years, 233 days	16 years, 256 days	Judge of Madras HC
11	S. Ratnavel Pandian		February 1974	14 December 1988	12 March 1994		5 years, 89 days		Acting CJ of Madras HC
12	Veeraswami Ramaswami		31 January 1971	6 October 1989	14 February 1994	18 years, 248 days	4 years, 132 days	23 years, 15 days	16th CJ of Punjab & Haryana HC
13	Shanmughasundaram Mohan		February 1974	7 October 1991	10 February 1995		3 years, 127 days		12th CJ of Karnataka HC
14	Konduswami Venkataswamy		24 July 1983	6 March 1995	18 September 1999	11 years, 225 days	4 years, 197 days	16 years, 57 days	26th CJ of Patna HC
15	Madhavachari Srinivasan		2 June 1986	25 September 1997	25 February 2000	10 years, 292 days	2 years, 154 days	13 years, 269 days	13th CJ of Himachal Pradesh HC	Died in office
16	Doraiswamy Raju		14 January 1990	28 January 2000	1 July 2004	10 years, 14 days	4 years, 156 days	14 years, 170 days	15th CJ of Himachal Pradesh HC
17	Arunachalam R. Lakshmanan		14 June 1990	20 December 2002	21 March 2007	12 years, 189 days	4 years, 92 days	16 years, 281 days	22nd CJ of Rajasthan HC
18	Palanisamy Sathasivam		8 August 1996	21 August 2007	26 April 2014	11 years, 13 days	6 years, 249 days	17 years, 262 days	Judge of Punjab & Haryana HC	40th Chief Justice of India
19	Fakkir Mohamed Ibrahim Kalifulla		2 March 2000	2 April 2012	22 July 2016	12 years, 31 days	4 years, 112 days	16 years, 143 days	29th CJ of Jammu & Kashmir HC
20	Chokkalingam Nagappan		27 September 2000	19 September 2013	3 October 2016	12 years, 357 days	3 years, 15 days	16 years, 7 days	25th CJ of Orissa HC
21	R. Banumathi		3 April 2003	13 August 2014	19 July 2020	11 years, 132 days	5 years, 342 days	17 years, 108 days	9th CJ of Jharkhand HC
22	V. Ramasubramanian		31 July 2006	23 September 2019	29 June 2023	13 years, 54 days	3 years, 280 days	16 years, 334 days	24th CJ of Himachal Pradesh HC

See also

• India portal
• Law portal
• Architecture portal

• High Courts of India
• Architecture of Chennai
• Heritage structures in Chennai

References

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2. "Madras High Court: Where justice began 125 years ago". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
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6. "High Court to get 15 new judges next week". The Hindu. 25 September 2016. Archived from the original on 25 September 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
7. Sangameswaran, K. T.; Vivek Narayanan (8 June 2014). "Madras High Court buildings to undergo repairs soon". The Hindu. Chennai. Archived from the original on 9 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
8. "Madras High Court". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
9. "Rename Madras high court as Tamil Nadu HC and not as Chennai HC, resolution passed by TN assembly says - Times of India". indiatimes.com. Archived from the original on 23 June 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
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11. "Restoring the old Article from NewIndPress news website". newindpress.com. Archived from the original on 26 November 2006. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
12. Chandru, K. (26 November 2011). "Some thoughts around the Madras High Court". The Hindu. Chennai. Archived from the original on 28 November 2011. Retrieved 27 November 2011.
13. "City Civil and Sessions Court". E-Court Mission Mode Project. Tamil Nadu District Judiciary. n.d. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
14. Court, Madras High. "Madras High Court - Present Judges". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018.
15. "Lordships cling to colonial mace". The Hindu. 7 February 2013. ISSN   0971-751X. Archived from the original on 16 March 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
16. Archived 13 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
17. Vandhana, ?. M. (15 July 2013). "The 'green bench' that has delivered landmark judgements". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 27 July 2013.
18. "Justice Asok Kumar Ganguly to be Chief Justice of Madras High Court". The India Post. 21 May 2008. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2009.
19. "Madras High Court". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
20. "Madras High Court - Profile of Chief Justice". www.hcmadras.tn.nic.in. Retrieved 4 February 2019.

External links

Media related to Madras High Court at Wikimedia Commons

• Official website