The Lahore High Court () is based in

Lahore Lahore ( ; pnb, ; ur, ) is the second List of cities in Pakistan by population, most populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and 26th List of largest cities, most populous city in the world, with a population of over 13 million. It is th ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. It was established as a high court on 21 March 1882. The Lahore High Court has

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, areas of jurisdiction apply to local, state, and federal levels. J ...

over

Punjab (Pakistan) Punjab (; , ) is one of the four provinces of Pakistan. Located in central-eastern region of the country, Punjab is the second-largest province of Pakistan by land area and the largest province by population. It shares land borders with the ...

. The High Court's principal seat is in

, but there are benches in three other

i cities:

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan ...

Multan Multan (; ) is a city in Punjab, Pakistan, on the bank of the Chenab River. Multan is Pakistan's seventh largest city as per the 2017 census, and the major cultural, religious and economic centre of southern Punjab. Multan is one of the ol ...

and

Bahawalpur Bahawalpur () is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. With inhabitants as of 2017, it is Pakistan's 11th most populous city. Founded in 1748, Bahawalpur was the capital of the former princely state of Bahawalpur, ruled by the Abbasi fa ...

. A proposal was sent by

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solicit ...

s to set up new high court benches in Faisalabad,

Sialkot Sialkot ( ur, ) is a city located in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the capital of Sialkot District and the 13th most populous city in Pakistan. The boundaries of Sialkot are joined with Jammu (the winter capital of Indian administered Jammu and Ka ...

D.G.Khan Dera Ghazi Khan (), abbreviated as D.G. Khan, is a city in the southwestern part of Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 19th largest city of Pakistan by population. Lying west of the Indus River, it is the headquarters of Dera Ghazi Khan District and ...

and

Gujranwala Gujranwala ( ur, , label=none; ) is a city and capital of Gujranwala Division located in Pakistan. It is also known as "City of Wrestlers" and is quite famous for its food. It is the 5th most populous List of most populous cities in Pakistan, c ...

divisions but full court of Lahore High Court turned down this request.

History

Creation

In 1849, the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Sou ...

defeated the

Sikh Empire The Sikh Empire was a state originating in the Indian subcontinent, formed under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, who established an empire based in the Punjab. The empire existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahor ...

and assumed control of administration within the

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

. A Board of Administration was constituted and the

was divided into Divisions, Districts and Tehsils. The Divisions were controlled by Commissioners, Districts by Deputy Commissioners and Tehsils by an Assistant and Extra Assistant Commissioners. The Board of Administration consisted of

Sir Henry Lawrence Brigadier-General Sir Henry Montgomery Lawrence KCB (28 June 18064 July 1857) was a British military officer, surveyor, administrator and statesman in British India. He is best known for leading a group of administrators in the Punjab affectiona ...

, John Lawrence and Charles Grenville Mansel

Chief Court of the Punjab Lahore High Court

In 1858 the Punjab, along with the rest of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, came under the direct rule of the

British crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

and decisions with regard to administration and justice were now made under the authority of the monarch,

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...

. Hibbert 2000, p. 221 By 1864, a proliferation of court cases necessitated an expansion to the judicial structure in the province. The Punjab Courts Act, (XIX of 1865) introduced seven grades of courts, combining judicial and administrative functions and claiming jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases. The Court of Tehsildar was the lowest court, whilst the Court of the Judicial Commissioner became the highest court in the land. Over time, as appeals to the Chief Court greatly increased, later Acts namely the Punjab Courts Act, (XVII of 1877) and Punjab Courts Act, (XVIII of 1884) repealed earlier Acts and restated the law regarding the courts' constitution, powers and jurisdiction. Additional judges were appointed, and greater finality was granted to the decisions of the lower appellate courts. By 1884, there were four classes of courts subordinate to the Chief Court, namely the Divisional Court, the Court of the District Judge, the Court of the Subordinate Judge, the Court of Munsif.

Lahore High Court

On October 1, 1882, the Chief Court of the

Court was elevated to the status of a Lahore High Court, becoming known as Lahore High Court, King-Emperor George V also appointed a Chief Justice and six puisne justices, and declared the Court's jurisdiction over the

and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

provinces. The Government of India Act, 1935 removed the barrier that the Chief Justice must be a Barrister Judge and opened the position to Civilian Judges. An age limit of 60 years was set for High Court Judges. By virtue of the Government of India (High Court Judges) Order, 1937, a maximum number of Judges for the various High Courts in India was fixed. In each case the number so stated was exclusive of the Chief Justice but included all additional judges. For the Lahore High Court the maximum number was fixed at 15.

The West Pakistan High Court

On 30 September 1955, the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan established the province of

West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was ...

, and gave the Governor-General the power to establish the West Pakistan High Court, which was established in 1956. Judges from the Chief Court of Sind and the Judicial Commissioners Court at

Peshawar Peshawar (; ps, پېښور ; hnd, ; ; ur, ) is the sixth most populous city in Pakistan, with a population of over 2.3 million. It is situated in the north-west of the country, close to the International border with Afghanistan. It is ...

became

judges A judge is an official who presides over a court. Judge or Judges may also refer to: Roles *Judge, an alternative name for an adjudicator in a competition in theatre, music, sport, etc. *Judge, an alternative name/aviator call sign for a membe ...

at the West

High Court.

Creation Of Divisional Benches

On 1 January 1981, it was ordered that the Lahore High Court would create benches at

and

. The order also specified that the Lahore High Court

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

s could hold circuit courts anywhere in the province, with judges nominated by the Lahore High Court Chief Justice.

Chief Justices

The first Chief Justice at Lahore was Sir Henry Meredyth Plowden in 1880. The current Chief Justice is Muhammad Ameer Bhatti, incumbent since 6th July 2021 and will be retired on 7th March 2024.

List of chief justices

The following table lists all the chief justices to date.

Current composition

Lahore High Court is headed by a Chief Justice. The bench consist of sixty Justices and additional judges. The retirement age of Chief Justice and Justices is 62 years. The Additional Judges are initially appointed for one year. After that, their services could either be extended or they could be confirmed or they are retired. The current Chief Justice of Lahore High Court is Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti and Court is currently made up of the following Justices (in order of seniority).

PCO 25 March 1981

The PCO of 1981 also afforded the Lahore High Court these three benches. The judges were required to take oath under the Provisional Constitutional Order. Four judges refused to do so and were relieved of office. Four other judges were not administered the oath, and were also relieved of office.

PCO 26 January 2000

* Sir Rashid Aziz Khan Took oath under PCO * Mian Allah Nawaz Took oath under PCO * Falak Sher Took oath under PCO * Ehsanul Haq Chaudhry Did not Take oath under PCO * Tanvir Ahmad Khan Took oath under PCO * Amir Alam Khan Took oath under PCO * Iftikhar Hussain Chaudhry Took oath under PCO * Fakhar-un-Nisa Khokhar Took oath under PCO * Ghulam Mehmood Qureshi Took oath under PCO * Karamat Nazir Bhandari Took oath under PCO * Javed Buttar Took oath under PCO * Mohammad Asif Jan Took oath under PCO * Mohammad Nasim Chaudhri Took oath under PCO * Mohammad Nawaz Abbasi, Took oath under PCO * Tassadaq Hussain Jilani Took oath under PCO * Raja Mohammad Sabir Took oath under PCO * Sayed Zahid Hussain Took oath under PCO * Munir Ahmad Mughal Took oath under PCO * Fakir Mohammad Khokar Took oath under PCO * Abdul Razzaq Sheikh Took oath under PCO * Zafar Pasha Chaudhary Took oath under PCO * Mumtaz Ali Mirza Took oath under PCO *

Asif Saeed Khan Khosa Asif Saeed Khan Khosa ( ur, ; born 21 December 1954) is a Pakistani jurist who served as the 26th Chief Justice of Pakistan from 18 January 2019 to 20 December 2019. He joined the Supreme Court as a judge on 18 February 2010 and prior to that se ...

Took oath under PCO * Ch. Ijaz Ahmad Took oath under PCO * Iftikhar Ahmad Cheema Took oath under PCO * Jawad S Khawaja Took oath under PCO * Khwaja Mohammad Sharif Took oath under PCO * Mian Mohammad Najam-uz-Zaman Took oath under PCO * Mian Saqib Nisar Took oath under PCO * Mian Zafar Yasin Took oath under PCO * Riaz Kayani Took oath under PCO * Najamul Hassan Kazmi Did not Take oath under PCO * Syed Jamshed Ali Took oath under PCO * Khalil-ur-Rehman Ramday Took oath under PCO * Malik Mohammad Qayyum Took oath under PCO * Nazir Akhtar Took oath under PCO * Ali Nawaz Chohan Took oath under PCO * Bashir A Mujahid Took oath under PCO * Naeemullah Sherwani Took oath under PCO * Molvi Anwar-ul-Haq Took oath under PCO * Akhtar Shabbir Took oath under PCO * Naseem Sikandar Took oath under PCO * Nazir Siddique Took oath under PCO

PCO 3 November 2007

*Iftikhar Hussain Ch Take oath under PCo as chief justice * Khawja Muhammad Sharif Refused oath under PCo * Sayyed Zahid Hussain Take oath under PCo *Mian M Najamuz Zaman Take oath under PCo *Mian Saqib Nisar Refused oath under PCo *Asif Saeed Khan Khosa Refused oath under PCo *Maulvi Anwarul Haq Take oath under PCo *Nasim Sikandar Take oath under PCo *Abdul Shakoor Paracha Take oath under PCo *Mohammad Khalid Alvi Take oath under PCo *Muhammad Sair Ali Refused oath under PCo *Ijaz Ahmad Chaudhry, Refused oath under PCo *Mian Hamid Farooq Take oath under PCo *M. Bilal Khan Take oath under PCo *Fazale Miran Chauhan Take oath under PCo *Syed Shabbar Raza Rizvi Take oath under PCo *M. A. Shahid Siddiqui Refused oath under PCo *Syed Sakhi Hussain Bokhari Take oath under PCo *Sardar Mohammad Aslam Take oath under PCo *Sheikh Hakim Ali Take oath under PCo *Mohammad Muzammal Khan Take oath under PCo *Muhammad Jhangir Arshad Refused oath under PCo *Sh. Azmat Saeed Refused oath under PCo *Syed Hamid Ali Shah Take oath under PCo *Umar AttaBandial Refused oath under PCo *Sh. Javaid Sarfraz Take oath under PCo *Syed Sajjad Hussain Shah Take oath under PCo *Tariq Shamim Take oath under PCo *Syed Asghar Haider Take oath under PCo *Hasnat Ahmad Khan Take oath under PCo *Iqbal Hameed-ur-Rehman Refused oath under PCo

References

{{coord missing, Lahore High Courts of Pakistan Court system of Pakistan Lahore The Mall, Lahore