Advocatespedia:Do you know/June 29, 2024

District and Sub-ordinate Courts The Courts that function below the High Courts are popularly known as the lower Courts. They consist of district and sub-ordinate courts. Each state is divided into judicial districts presided over by a 'District and Sessions Judge'. The judge is known as a 'District Judge' when she/he presides over a civil case and a 'Sessions Judge' when he presides over a criminal case. The district judge is also called a 'Metropolitan Sessions Judge' when she/he is presiding over a district court in a city which is designated as a metropolitan area by the State government. District judges may be working with Additional District judges, depending upon the judicial workload. The district judge is the highest judicial authority below a High Court judge. The District Court also holds appellate jurisdiction and supervision over all sub-ordinate Courts below it. On the Civil side, the sub-ordinate Courts below the District Court include (in ascending order) - Junior Civil Judge Court, Principal Junior Civil Judge Court, Senior Civil Judge Courts (also called sub-Courts). Sub-ordinate Courts on Criminal side (in ascending order) include- Second Class Judicial Magistrates Court, First Class Judicial Magistrate Court and Chief Judicial Magistrate Court. Apart from the sub-ordinate Courts, Munsiff Courts also form a part of this hierarchy. They are the lowest in terms of handling matters of civil nature and function below the sub-ordinate Courts. Their pecuniary limits, meaning the Court's ability to hear matters upto a particular claim for money, are notified by respective State Governments.