Rajasthan High Court :
The Rajasthan High Court is the High Court of the state of Rajasthan. It was established on 29 August 1949 under the Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949.
There were five High Courts functioning in the various units of the States - at Jodhpur, Jaipur and Bikaner, the High Courts of former Rajasthan and Matsya Union, before unification of the Rajasthan. The Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949 abolished these different jurisdictions and provided for a single High Court for the entire State. The High Court of Rajasthan was founded in 1949 at Jaipur, and was inaugurated by the Rajpramukh, Maharaja Sawai Man Singh on 29 August 1949, later on after complete integration of Rajasthan in 1956 it was moved at Jodhpur with recommendation of satyanarayan rao committee.
The first Chief Justice was Kamala Kant Verma. A bench was formed at Jaipur on 31 January 1977 under sub-section (2) of Section 51 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 which was dissolved in 1958. Currently the sanctioned strength of the judges is 50 and actual strength is 34.
Currently the Chief Justice of the court is Justice Shripathi Ravindra Bhat.
History :
The State of Rajasthan was formed during the period March 17, 1948 and January 25, 1950 by integration of 19 Princely States. The Union of Rajasthan was inaugurated at Jaipur by Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel on March 30, 1949. At that time Jaipur, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner and Kota were the leading states with more or less British style of Administrative set up. They had their own High Courts with a subordinate judicial system. Before inauguration of the new State, a committee consisting of Shri B.R.Patel, the then Chief Secretary to the Government of PEPSU, Lt. Col. T.C.Puri, Director of Health Service and Shri S.P.Sinha, Superintending Engineer, CPWD, was constituted to resolve the issues relating to location of the capital and the seat of the High Court. The committee submitted its report on March 27, 1949 with a recommendation that Jaipur should be made capital of the new State and the High Court should be located at Jodhpur. In the newly created State, five High Courts were functioning at Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur (being capital of United Rajasthan with a bench at Kota) and Alwar (being capital of Matsya State) with a total strength of 20 judges. The Rajasthan High Court Ordinance, 1949 abolished these different jurisdictions and provided for a single High Court for the entire State. Section 10(1) of the Ordinance laid down that “the High Court shall sit at Jodhpur and such other place or places, if any, as the Rajpramukh may from time to time appoint either permanently or for a specified period”. Sub-section (2) of Section 10 empowered the Chief Justice to nominate one or more of such judges of the High Court to sit at such place or places as he may direct. In exercise of powers under sub-section(3) of Section 1, the Rajpramukh of the State issued a notification on August 25, 1949 fixing the 29th day of August, 1949 as the date for inauguration of the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan at Jodhpur. On the same day the Rajpramukh exercising the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 10 of the Ordinance directed that until further orders the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan shall also sit simultaneously at Jaipur to dispose of the work arising in the Jaipur and Kota divisions and at Udaipur to dispose of the work arising in Udaipur division.
The High Court was duly inaugurated on August 29, 1949. In an impressive function, presided by Rajpramukh His Highness Maharaja Sawai Man Singh, oath was administered to Hon'ble Justice Kamal Kant Verma (former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court and former Chief Justice of Udaipur High Court) as Chief Justice alongwith 11 other judges. These 11 judges represented most of the princely States. Justice Lala Nawal Kishore and Justice Kunwar Amar Singh Jasol were from Jodhpur, Justice Kanwar Lal Bapna and Justice Mohd. Ibrahim were from Jaipur, Justice Jawan Singh Ranawat and Justice Sardul Singh Mehta were from Udaipur, Justice Durga Shankar Dave was from Bundi, Justice Trilochan Dutt was from Bikaner, Justice Anand Narain Kaul was from Alwar, Justice K.K.Sharma was from Bharatpur and Justice Kshemchand Gupta was from Kota.
On September 3, 1949 in modification of the previous notification dated August 25, 1949, the Rajpramukh issued a further notification directing that the High Court of Judicature for Rajasthan shall also sit simultaneously at Bikaner and Kota to dispose of the cases pending before Bikaner High Court and Kota bench of the High Court of the Former United Rajasthan respectively. Under this notification no authority was given to entertain new cases other than the applications for revision or readmission.
The abolition of the Rajasthan High Court Bench at Jaipur caused a huge dissatisfaction among the large section of people in Eastern Rajasthan, specially in the city of Jaipur. Different Bar Associations and other organisations demanded to have a permanent bench of the High Court at Jaipur. This demand came to be satisfied under “the High Court of Rajasthan (Establishment of a Permanent Bench at Jaipur) Order, 1976”. On December 8, 1976, the President of India exercising powers conferred by sub-section(2) of Section 51 of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, after having consultation with Governor of Rajasthan and the Chief Justice of High Court of Rajasthan, made the order aforesaid establishing a permanent bench of the High Court at Jaipur. The bench is having jurisdiction in respect of the cases arising in the districts of Ajmer, Alwar, Bharatpur, Dhaulpur, Kota, Bundi, Jhalawar, Baran, Jaipur, Jhunjhnun, Sawaimadhopur, Karauli, Sikar, Tonk and Dausa. Under the order of 1976, a discretion is also given to the Chief Justice to order that any case or class of cases arising in any district within the jurisdiction of Jaipur Bench shall be heard at Jodhpur.
The Rajasthan High Court is presently having sanctioned strength of 50 judges. A new building of the High Court has already been constructed at Jaipur and the construction work for a new majestic building for High Court at Jodhpur is in progress.