Legal Guidance Center

Hierarchy of Criminal Courts          Administration of justice is the most important function of the State. For this purpose our Constitution has setup a hierarchy of Courts. The Supreme Court is the Apex body, followed by 24 High Courts which have been created by the constitution of India, and their jurisdiction and powers are well defined in the Constitution itself. Apart from the Supreme Court, High Courts and the court constituted under any law other than Criminal Procedure Code,1973, the following criminal courts have been described under Section 6 of the Criminal Procedure Code,1973:- (i)           Courts of Session; (ii)         Judicial Magistrate of the first class and , in any metropolitan area, Metropolitan Magistrate ; (iii)       Judicial Magistrates of the second class; and (iv)        Executive Magistrate.       The State Government shall establish a court of session for every Session’s division. The Judge of the sessions Court is appointed by the H

           PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION INTRODUCTION                              Public Interest Litigation which means "litigation in the interest of public". The undeveloped concept of public interest litigation can be traced in the system of ‘ actio popularis ’ of Roman law which permitted anyone in the society to initiate an action for a public delict in the court of law or to bring an action of restitution or injunction for the protection of public property or a religious charitable property. Thus the system of ‘ actio popularis ‘of Roman law can be described as historical basis of the present form of public interest litigation. The Bhopal Gas Disaster (Processing of claims) Act, 1985 which enabled the Union Government to file claims for damages on behalf of the gas victims exhibits a good example of Roman actio popularis in modern times. Different terminologies have been used for it in modern times such as class litigation, representative action, public interest