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Allahabad High Court

The biggest one, by a wide margin

Official Website: https://www.allahabadhighcourt.in

Location / Principal Seat: Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh

Jurisdiction (States/UTs Covered): Uttar Pradesh

Year of Establishment: 17 March 1866

Languages Commonly Used: English and Hindi (Hindi authorised under Article 348(2); judgments still delivered in English)

Allahabad is the largest High Court in India, and it got that way almost by accident: it was chartered in 1866 for the whole of the North-Western Provinces, and Uttar Pradesh — the state it now serves — simply never stopped being India's most populous. It didn't even start in the city whose name it carries; it opened in Agra and moved to Allahabad only in 1875. Its Lucknow Bench, added in 1948, absorbed what had been the separate Chief Court of Oudh, so the Court effectively swallowed a second judicial system whole. Uniquely among the newer or smaller High Courts, Allahabad is one of only four in the country permitted to conduct proceedings in Hindi as well as English, a status it picked up in 1969.

Jurisdiction Map: Covers Uttar Pradesh. Principal seat: Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad), Uttar Pradesh. It also reaches outlying parts of its territory through: Permanent Bench at Lucknow (covering the Oudh/Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh).

Citation: Indian High Courts Act 1861; Constitution of India, art 348(2).