Know Your High Courts: Patna High Court

Historical Background & Foundation

• The Patna High Court building was completed on January 3, 1916, and was formally opened by the then Viceroy in a durbar organized for the same reason.

• On this occasion, Lord Hardinge made the following observations:- "I am about to execute an almost unique duty, and one which I do not think has plunged to the lot of any previous Viceroy. I think when I look at this fine construction that the people of this province may congratulate themselves in many ways on their new establishment. It will be itself is an emblem of the great, and, perhaps, even weightier, in its judgment as between the individual and the State".

• The High Court commenced work from the 1st March 1916. On that day the Hon'ble Judges wore full court dress. The Judges were robed in red gowns, wigs, black knee-breeches, black silk stockings and folded patent leather shoes. 

• On that day, precisely at 10.35 the Judges entered the Chief Justice's Courtroom and sat on their seats on red morocco brimming with armless chairs on the dais. 

• On the dais behind the Judges, the Registrar of the Court, the Commissioner of the Division, the Commissioner of Excise and Registration, and a few local senior officials took their places.

• Maulana Mazhar-ul-Haq, Barrister-at-Law, welcomed the Judges on behalf of the Bar. The Hon'ble Chief Justice then announced the formation of a High Court of Judicature for the provinces of Bihar and Orissa, as well as the transfer of jurisdiction from the High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal to this Court.

Jurisdiction

• The High Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal ceased to exercise jurisdiction over the then state of Bihar which included Jharkhand too.

• Civil, Criminal, Admiralty, Matrimonial, Testamentary and Intestate, Enrolment, etc. in all matters, jurisdiction was given to the High Court of Judicature at Patna.

• The present strength of Judges of the Patna High Court at present is 23. Many judges have presided in the High Court with four of them including Aftab Alam, B.P. Sinha, Gyan Sudha Mishra and Lalit Mishra going on to become the Justices of the Supreme Court of India.

Present Chief Justice of the Patna High Court

• Hon'ble Mr Justice Sanjay Karol is the present Chief Justice of Patna High Court. He is former Chief Justice of Tripura High Court. He is also former Judge and Acting Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court.

• Karol was born in Shimla in 1961 in a Sood He passed from St. Edward's School, Shimla and graduated with History Honours from Government College, Sanjauli. Karol obtained Law degree from Himachal Pradesh University and in 1983 he was enrolled as an advocate, practised in various courts.

• He was appointed as an additional judge of the Himachal Pradesh High Court and also served as Acting Chief Justice of the High Court from 25 April 2017. Justice Karol became the fourth Chief Justice of Tripura High Court on 14 November 2018. He was transferred as Chief Justice of Patna High Court on 11 November 2019.

Significant Judgements.

The Court has always been applauded for protecting democracy as well as establishing the rule of law. Here are the few landmark judgments by the Patna High Court:

Apne Aap Women Worldwide Trust vs The State Of Bihar

• In a sweeping judgement, the court asked the government of Bihar to tackle trafficking from each angle in every village.

• They will work to identify missing children, ensure school for at-risk children, arrest traffickers and clients, deliver citizenship papers and subsidies to at-risk women and victims, provide seed money for small business, set up more shelters, and report back.

• It is truly one of the most thorough anti-trafficking judgements in the poorest state of India with a populace of 82,998,509 of which 23,852,828 are girls. This judgement transformed the lives of the most banished of them by giving them access to citizenship and services and justice which has dodged them for centuries.

Vishwanat vs Sau. Sarla Vishwanath Agrawal

• It has been observed that when a spouse makes a complaint about the treatment of cruelty by the partner in life or relations, the court should not search for standard in life. A set of facts denounced as cruelty in one case may not be so in an alternative case.

• The cruelty alleged may largely depend upon the type of life the parties are comfortable to or their economic and social circumstances. It may also differ upon their culture and human values to which they attach importance. 

Protection of Migrant Labours during COVID-19:

• The Patna high court stood suo-motu cognizance of the death of a woman on board a train carrying migrants from Gujarat to Bihar after a video clip of her little son fiddling with the shroud placed on her body while it lay at a railway station went viral and provoked outrage.

• Soon after the matter was concluded, a division bench led by Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Sanjay Kumar took up the case and brought to the court's attention a newspaper report about the occurrence, which occurred on Monday but was only discovered two days later.