Allahabad High Court, UPPSC and UP State Commissions

Article 214 of the Constitution says there shall be a High Court for each state, and for Uttar Pradesh that court is the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, the oldest High Court in the country and the one with the largest sanctioned strength of judges. Around the court stands a second set of institutions that the state cannot run without: the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission, which recruits its officers, the subordinate services commission, which fills its clerical and technical posts, and the human rights, information, women, backward classes, election and finance commissions, each created by a law or by the Constitution itself. UPPSC, UPSSSC, UP Police and SSC papers take their questions from the founding dates, the seats, the appointing authorities and the article numbers of this chapter, and none of those answers changes from one year to the next.

How the Allahabad High Court came up

The court was created under the Indian High Courts Act, 1861 and was inaugurated on 17 March 1866 as the High Court for the North-Western Provinces, sitting at Agra. Its seat was shifted to Allahabad in 1869, and the Letters Patent of 1919 gave it the name it still carries, the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. A separate Chief Court of Oudh functioned at Lucknow for the Oudh region. The two were brought together by the United Provinces High Courts (Amalgamation) Order, which took effect on 26 July 1948, and Lucknow has since been a permanent Bench of the same High Court. So Uttar Pradesh has one High Court that sits at two places, Prayagraj (Allahabad) and Lucknow, a point examiners like because candidates often count the Bench as a second court. When Uttarakhand was carved out of the state on 9 November 2000, the hill districts passed to the new High Court of Uttarakhand at Nainital, and the Allahabad High Court now exercises jurisdiction over the 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Judges: appointment, oath and removal

Article 216 says a High Court shall consist of a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President may from time to time deem it necessary to appoint, so the Constitution fixes no maximum; the strength of each court is raised by the Union Government as the work grows. Under Article 217 a judge is appointed by the President by warrant, after consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the Governor of the state and, for a judge other than the Chief Justice, the Chief Justice of that High Court, and the recommendation today comes from the Supreme Court collegium. A judge holds office until the age of 62, against 65 for a judge of the Supreme Court. To qualify, a person must be a citizen of India and must have held a judicial office in India for ten years or have been an advocate of a High Court for ten years. Article 215 makes every High Court a court of record with the power to punish for its contempt. Article 219 requires the oath to be taken before the Governor of the state. Removal is deliberately difficult: under Article 218 read with Article 124(4) a judge can be removed only by an order of the President after an address by each House of Parliament, supported by a majority of the total membership and two-thirds of the members present and voting, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

The articles to memorise

The Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission

Article 315 provides a Public Service Commission for the Union and one for each state, and UPPSC is the state commission for Uttar Pradesh, with its office at Prayagraj. In its present form it descends from the Public Service Commission of the United Provinces, set up under the Government of India Act, 1935. The chairman and members are appointed by the Governor under Article 316 and hold office for six years or until the age of 62, whichever is earlier, the corresponding age for a member of the Union Public Service Commission being 65. A member can resign to the Governor, but he can be removed only by the President, on a reference made to the Supreme Court for an inquiry under Article 317 and on its report: the Governor who appoints him cannot remove him, which is the single most asked point of this chapter. Article 318 leaves the conditions of service to regulations made by the Governor, and Article 319 bars a retiring member from further government employment, though the chairman of a state commission remains eligible to become chairman or member of UPSC or chairman of another state commission. Article 320 lists the functions: to conduct examinations for appointment to the services of the state and to be consulted on recruitment, promotion, transfer and disciplinary matters; its advice is advisory only and the government may reject it. Expenses are charged on the Consolidated Fund of the State under Article 322, and under Article 323 the commission presents an annual report to the Governor, which is laid before the legislature with a memorandum explaining every case in which the advice was not accepted. UPPSC holds the Combined State or Upper Subordinate Services examination, popularly the PCS, the Provincial Civil Service (Judicial) examination and the Review Officer examination, among others.

The other commissions of the state

Group C posts are filled by the Uttar Pradesh Subordinate Services Selection Commission, created by a state Act of 1988, while teachers, police and technical cadres have their own boards. The Uttar Pradesh State Human Rights Commission works under Section 21 of the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993: its chairperson is a person who has been a Chief Justice or a Judge of a High Court, appointed by the Governor on the recommendation of a committee of the Chief Minister, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Home Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, and after the amendment of 2019 the term is three years or the age of seventy; like a member of UPPSC, a member of the state commission can be removed only by the President. The State Information Commission functions under Section 15 of the Right to Information Act, 2005, with a State Chief Information Commissioner and not more than ten State Information Commissioners appointed by the Governor on the advice of a committee of the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and a cabinet minister. The Lokayukta of Uttar Pradesh, under a state Act of 1975, inquires into allegations against ministers and public servants. Two more bodies come straight from the Constitution: the State Election Commission under Article 243K, which conducts panchayat and municipal elections and whose commissioner enjoys the protection of a High Court judge, and the State Finance Commission under Article 243-I, constituted by the Governor every five years to review the finances of panchayats and municipalities.