The High Court of Kerala is the highest court in the Indian state of Kerala and in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep.
History :- The present State of Kerala is result of integrating the erstwhile princely kingdoms of Travancore and Cochin with Malabar district and Kasaragod. The present judicial system in Kerala has its roots dating back to the days of the monarchs of the Kingdoms of Travancore and Cochin. In 1811, following the 1808 insurrection against British Cochin and Quilon, Colonel H. M. Munro succeeded Colonel Macaulay as the Resident in Travancore with supervision over the Kingdom of Cochin.
Following an investigation into the rampant lawlessness and the abuse of the system, Colonel Munro surveyed the region with his assistant Captain Blacker and established reforms including courts, pensions, construction of roads, bridges and schools. He functioned as the Diwan until February 1818 when he handed over the reins to Nanjappayya of Coimbatore. Thus it was Colonel Munro laid the foundations for a systematic legal system, resulting in the present day scenario. Until his time, there were no independent tribunals for the administration of justice.
It is located in Kochi. Drawing its powers under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the High Court has the power to issue directions, orders and writs including the writs of habeas corpus, mandamus, prohibition, quo warranto and certiorari for ensuring the enforcement of the Fundamental Rights guaranteed by the Constitution to citizens or for other specified purposes. The High Court is empowered with original, appellate and revisional jurisdiction in civil as well as criminal matters, and the power to answer references to it under some statutes.
The High Court has the superintendence and visitorial jurisdiction over all courts and tribunals of inferior jurisdiction covered under its territorial jurisdiction. At present, the sanctioned Judge strength of the High Court of Kerala is 27 Permanent Judges including the Chief Justice and 20 Additional Judges. Depending on the importance and nature of the question to be adjudicated, the judges sit as Single (one judge), Division (two judges), Full (three judges) or such other benches of larger strengths.
Judges
The current sitting judges of the Kerala high court are
| Name | Position | From |
|---|---|---|
| Hrishikesh Roy | Chief Justice | 8 August 2018 |
| C.K. Abdul Rehim | Permanent Judge | 15 December 2010 |
| C. T. Ravi Kumar | Permanent Judge | 15 December 2010 |
| V. Chitambaresh | Permanent Judge | 7 December 2012 |
| A.M. Shaffique | Permanent Judge | 7 December 2012 |
| K. Harilal | Permanent Judge | 24 June 2013 |
| K. Vinod Chandran | Permanent Judge | 24 June 2013 |
| P. D . Rajan | Permanent Judge | 16 January 2014 |
| A. Hariprasad | Permanent Judge | 30 June 2014 |
| Dama Seshadri Naidu | Permanent Judge | 30 June 2014 |
| P. Ubaid | Permanent Judge | 10 March 2016 |
| K. Abraham Mathew | Permanent Judge | 10 March 2016 |
| Alexander Thomas | Permanent Judge | 10 March 2016 |
| A. Muhamed Mustaque | Permanent Judge | 10 March 2016 |
| A. K. Jayasankaran Nambiar | Permanent Judge | 10 March 2016 |
| Anil K. Narendran | Permanent Judge | 10 March 2016 |
| P. V. Asha | Permanent Judge | 20 May 2016 |
| P. B. Suresh Kumar | Permanent Judge | 20 May 2016 |
| Sunil Thomas | Permanent Judge | 5 April 2017 |
| Shaji P. Chaly | Permanent Judge | 5 April 2017 |
| Anu Sivaraman | Permanent Judge | 5 April 2017 |
| Raja Vijayaraghavan V. | Permanent Judge | 5 April 2017 |
| B. Sudheendra Kumar | Permanent Judge | 5 April 2017 |
| Mary Joseph | Permanent Judge | 5 April 2017 |
| Sathish Ninan | Permanent Judge | 16 March 2018 |
| Devan Ramachandran | Permanent Judge | 16 March 2018 |
| P. Somarajan | Permanent Judge | 16 March 2018 |
| V. Shircy | Permanent Judge | 16 March 2018 |
| A. M. Babu | Permanent Judge | 16 March 2018 |
| Ashok Menon | Additional Judge | 30 November 2017 |
| Annie John | Additional Judge | 30 November 2017 |
| Narayana Pisharadi R | Additional Judge | 30 November 2017 |
| N. Nagaresh | Additional Judge | 5 November 2018 |
| V. G. Arun | Additional Judge | 5 November 2018 |
| T. V. Anilkumar | Additional Judge | 5 November 2018 |
| N. Anil Kumar | Additional Judge | 5 November 2018 |
Past Chief Justices Of Kerala
| Sl No | Name of the Chief Justice | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | K. T. Koshi | 12 September 1944 | 30 January 1959 |
| 2 | K. Sankaran | 16 August 1946 | 29 March 1960 |
| 3 | Mohammed Ahmed Ansari[5] | 29 March 1960 | 26 November 1961 |
| 4 | M. S. Menon | 29 January 1953 | 12 June 1969 |
| 5 | P. T. Raman Nair | 22 February 1957 | 1 September 1971 |
| 6 | T. C. Raghavan | 15 December 1959 | 21 May 1973 |
| 7 | P. Govindan Nair | 29 January 1962 | 3 January 1977 |
| 8 | V. P. Gopalan Nambiyar | 22 March 1965 | 19 January 1980 |
| 9 | V. Balakrishna Eradi | 5 April 1967 | 30 January 1981 |
| 10 | P. Subramanian Poti | 20 March 1969 | 26 September 1983 |
| 11 | K. Bhaskaran | 3 April 1972 | 9 October 1985 |
| 12 | V. S. Malimath | 24 October 1985 | 11 June 1991 |
| 13 | M. Jagannadha Rao[6] | 8 August 1991 | 5 April 1994 |
| 14 | Sujata V. Manohar | 21 April 1994 | 4 November 1994 |
| 15 | M. M. Pareed Pillay | 3 January 1985 | 17 September 1995 |
| 16 | U. P. Singh | 23 July 1996 | 19 December 1997 |
| 17 | Om Prakash Verma | 20 November 1997 | 19 March 1999 |
| 18 | Arijit Pasayat | 20 September 1999 | 8 May 2000 |
| 19 | Arvind Vinayakarao Savant | 30 May 2000 | 17 September 2000 |
| 20 | K.K. Usha | 25 February 2001 | 3 July 2001 |
| 21 | B. N. Srikrishna | 6 September 2001 | 1 October 2002 |
| 22 | Jawahar Lal Gupta | 1 November 2002 | 22 January 2004 |
| 23 | N K Sodhi | 5 April 2004 | 17 November 2004 |
| 24 | B. Subhashan Reddy | 21 November 2004 | 2 March 2005 |
| 25 | Rajeev Gupta | 27 April 2005 | 11 January 2006 |
| 26 | Vinod Kumar Bali | 22 January 2006 | 24 January 2007 |
| 27 | H. L. Dattu | 18 May 2007 | 12 December 2008 |
| 28 | S. R. Bannurmath | 18 March 2009 | 22 January 2010 |
| 29 | Jasti Chelameswar | 17 March 2010 | 10 October 2011 |
| 30 | Manjula Chellur | 26 September 2012 | 5 August 2014 |
| 31 | Ashok Bhushan | 26 March 2015 | 12 May 2016 |
| 32 | Mohan Shantanagoudar | 22 September 2016 | 17 February 2017 |
| 33 | Navniti Prasad Singh | 20 March 2017 | 5 November 2017 |
| 34 | Antony Dominic | 6 February 2018. | 28 May 2018 |