INDIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Anuradha Mukherjee, Omar Ahmad, Vikram Shah and Soumya Dasgupta, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
1. General 1.1 General Characteristics of the Legal System The Indian legal system traces its origins to the English common law system, and is based on codified law and law developed through judi- cial precedent. Proceedings in Indian courts are adversarial. The process before the court is con- ducted through both written submissions and oral arguments. 1.2 Court System India’s court system has a Supreme Court, High Courts of various states, and district courts that come under the supervisory jurisdiction of the relevant High Courts. There are 25 High Courts in India exercising jurisdiction over 28 states and eight union ter- ritories. Constitutional Courts The Constitution of India provides for two sets of constitutional courts: the High Courts and the Supreme Court of India. Both exercise “writ jurisdiction”, which is an extraordinary power in the hands of constitutional courts to undertake judicial review of state action and enforce the fundamental rights of persons. The Supreme Court also has powers to entertain appeals from any High Court exercising its writ jurisdiction. Appellate Jurisdiction Both the Supreme Court and the High Courts also have appellate jurisdiction. The Supreme Court can entertain appeals from various statu- tory tribunals as provided under the relevant leg- islation, and also has special powers to entertain an appeal against any decision/judgment/order of any court/tribunal in India.
The High Courts exercise appellate jurisdiction in various kinds of “civil” and “criminal” claims, while certain High Courts also exercise “original” jurisdiction – ie, in certain instances, the High Court can be the first court for certain claims of
a specific monetary value. Subject Matter Jurisdiction
India’s system of courts can be broadly classi- fied as “civil” and “criminal” courts, with certain courts such as family courts and small cause courts being concerned with specific classes of subject matter. Civil courts in India are governed by the pro- cedure set out in the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC). Since 1 July 2024, criminal courts are governed by the procedure set out in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023. All earlier cases continue to be governed by the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. With the enactment of the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 (CCA), India has an established class of “Commercial Courts” that concern them- selves with a specific set of identified claims. Tribunals In addition, various tribunals have been con- stituted by Acts of Parliament to undertake the adjudication of cases dealing with specific sub- ject matters, including the National Company Law Tribunal and the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal for matters concerning com- pany law, the National Green Tribunal for envi- ronmental matters, etc. The time it takes to commence trial in a civil mat- ter varies from court to court and across states; it usually takes 12 to 14 months from the com- mencement of proceedings to reach trial; please
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