Explain in short the structure of courts in India.

Courts in India comes under the Judicial system of our country. At the lower level, there are several courts but at the highest level, there is only one court. There are three different levels of courts which are-

• District level courts/Subordinate courts – Maximum number of people approach to district courts also know n as Tehsil level courts. They are located in towns and all kinds of cases are discussed here. As we know each state is divided into districts and the district courts here are headed by the district judge. Various names for the Subordinate Courts are Trial Court or the Court of the District Judge, the Additional Sessions Judge, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Metropolitan Magistrate, Civil Judge.

• High courts – Initially, High courts were established in 1862 in Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. In 1966, High court was established In Delhi. There are total 21 High courts in India. Even though states have their own High courts but Punjab and Haryana have common high court located at Chandigarh and similarly, Northeastern states have common high court located at Guwahati. Every state has a high court, which highest court of that particular state.

• Supreme Court – On 26 January 1950, the Supreme Court of India was established. Earlier, it was located at the Chamber of Princes in the Parliament House and in 1958, it was shifted to Mathura Road in New Delhi.

Supreme Court is the only highest level of court in India. It is located in New Delhi and is headed by Chief Justice of India. The judgments taken in the Supreme Court has to be followed by all the other courts in India.

Moreover, these different levels of courts are connected to each other. The decision taken by the Supreme Court has to be followed by all the lower courts of the country. Also, they are connected to each other by the system called appellate. It means that the individual can approach the higher court if the judgments taken by the lower courts are not just.