Bombay High Court: Celebrating 150 years of existence

The Bombay High Court, the same court where Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak was tried for sedition charges, will be celebrating its 150th anniversary this Sunday.

It’s also the court where naval commander KM Nanavati was tried by a jury, the last trial to be conducted by a jury in the Indian system, for killing his wife’s paramour.

SB Shukre, registrar general of the high court, said that a function will be held in the central courtroom, which has been given a facelift in honour of the occasion. The intricate structures on the pillars and the portrait-sized paintings of former judges have been buffered and polished. Since the building is a heritage structure, no external or internal changes can be made without permission of the heritage committee.

The 150th anniversary celebrations will be the first major function to be held in the high court in the last 24 years when Goa was granted statehood in 1987.

Though Goa has since become a separate state, it still has a bench of the Bombay High Court and not a high court of its own. Hence Goa will also be a part of the anniversary celebrations. “Chief ministers of Maharashtra and Goa. Prithviraj Chavan and Digambar Kamat respectively, will be gracing the function,” said Shukre.

Apart from the present high court judges, chief justice of the Supreme Court, SH Kapadia, will also be attending the function. Majority of the judges who have served at the high court and have now been elevated to the Supreme Court, such as justices Dalveer Bhandari, Harjit Singh Bedi and Hemant Gokhale, or as chief justices such as Justice JN Patel, who was elevated as the chief justice of the Calcutta high court will also be gracing the occasion, added Shukre.

The top lawyers of Maharashtra as well as Goa and the attorney general of India Goolam E Vahanvati will be addressing the gathering on the occasion.

The guest of honour would be the minister of law and justice, Salman Khurshid.