Madhya Pradesh High Court, MPPSC and State Commissions

Madhya Pradesh is one of the few states whose High Court sits at three places, and the reason lies in the way the state was put together in 1956 out of the Central Provinces, Madhya Bharat, Vindhya Pradesh and Bhopal. The High Court of Madhya Pradesh has its principal seat at Jabalpur and permanent Benches at Indore and Gwalior, and it is the court that Article 214 of the Constitution requires for the state. Beside it stands the Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission at Indore, created by Article 315, with the Employees Selection Board for the lower posts, and a row of statutory watchdogs: the Lokayukta, the State Human Rights Commission, the State Information Commission and the women and backward classes commissions. MPPSC, MPESB, MP Police and SSC papers ask for the seats, the years, the appointing authorities and the article numbers of this chapter.

From Nagpur to Jabalpur

The court was first established on 2 January 1936, by Letters Patent, as the High Court of Nagpur for the Central Provinces and Berar; until then the region came under the Judicial Commissioner. The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 redrew the map, and on 1 November 1956 the High Court of Madhya Pradesh was constituted with its principal seat at Jabalpur. Nagpur went to the new state of Bombay, and so its High Court became a Bench of the Bombay High Court, while the High Courts of the former states of Madhya Bharat at Gwalior, Vindhya Pradesh at Rewa and Bhopal were merged into the new court of Madhya Pradesh. Benches were provided at Indore and at Gwalior, and they have functioned since. One more change came on 1 November 2000, when Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh under the Madhya Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000: the districts of that region passed to the new High Court of Chhattisgarh at Bilaspur. Three dates settle most questions on this topic: 1936 for Nagpur, 1956 for Jabalpur, and 2000 for Bilaspur.

Jurisdiction and powers of the High Court

Article 215 makes every High Court a court of record with the power to punish for contempt of itself. Its best-known power is the writ jurisdiction of Article 226, under which it may issue the writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari for the enforcement of fundamental rights and for any other purpose. That phrase, for any other purpose, makes Article 226 wider than Article 32 of the Supreme Court, which is confined to fundamental rights; the remedy under Article 226 is also discretionary while the remedy under Article 32 is itself a fundamental right. Article 227 gives the High Court superintendence over all courts and tribunals within the state, Article 228 lets it withdraw a case from a subordinate court when a substantial question of the interpretation of the Constitution is involved, and Article 229 leaves the appointment of the officers and servants of the court to the Chief Justice. Article 231 allows Parliament to establish a common High Court for two or more states, as it has done for Punjab and Haryana. The law officer who appears for the state before the court is the Advocate-General, appointed by the Governor under Article 165, who must be qualified to be a judge of a High Court.

Judges of the High Court

The Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission

MPPSC came into being with the state itself in 1956 and has its office at Indore, which is worth noting because the High Court sits at Jabalpur and the commission at Indore. Article 315 creates it, Article 316 provides that the Governor appoints the chairman and members, who hold office for six years or until the age of 62, whichever is earlier, and that one-half of the members must be persons who have held office under the Government of India or a state for at least ten years. Article 317 is the heart of the chapter: a member can be removed only by the President, on the report of the Supreme Court after an inquiry, though the Governor may suspend him while the reference is pending, and a member may resign to the Governor. Article 318 leaves the conditions of service to the Governor, Article 319 bars further government employment after a term, Article 320 lists the functions, Article 322 charges the expenses on the Consolidated Fund of the State and Article 323 requires the annual report to be presented to the Governor and then laid before the legislature with a memorandum on the cases where the advice was not accepted. MPPSC conducts the State Service Examination for the Madhya Pradesh administrative and police services, the State Engineering Services examination and the recruitment of medical and other officers; posts of Group 2, Group 3 and Group 4 are filled by the Madhya Pradesh Employees Selection Board, formerly the Professional Examination Board.

The Lokayukta and the other commissions

Madhya Pradesh set up its Lokayukta and Up-Lokayukta under a state Act of 1981 to inquire into allegations of corruption and abuse of office against ministers and public servants; the Lokayukta is appointed by the Governor after consulting the Chief Justice of the High Court and the Leader of the Opposition, and the office works with a Special Police Establishment. The State Human Rights Commission functions under Section 21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, headed by a person who has been a Chief Justice or a Judge of a High Court and appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee of the Chief Minister, the Speaker, the Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, with a term of three years after the amendment of 2019. The State Information Commission works under Section 15 of the Right to Information Act, 2005 with a State Chief Information Commissioner and up to ten State Information Commissioners. Two commissions come from the Constitution itself: the State Election Commission of Article 243K, which held the panchayat elections of 1994 soon after the Seventy-third Amendment came into force and which conducts panchayat and municipal polls in the state, and the State Finance Commission of Article 243-I, constituted by the Governor every five years to recommend how the taxes of the state should be shared with panchayats and municipalities.