For quite some time now, lawyers and politicians in Tamil Nadu have been demanding the establishment of a Bench of the Supreme Court in Chennai. But what many may not know is that a Supreme Court of Judicature at Madras was, indeed, in existence in Chennai for more than 60 years until it was replaced by the present High Court of Judicature at Madras. The justice delivery system in vogue in the State is as old as its hoary colonial past. The British constructed Fort St. George, the power centre, in Chennai in the 1640s and began encouraging human settlements around it to further their trade interests. Over the years, the population grew and so did the need for a mechanism to adjudicate civil and criminal disputes.
Finding that the martial law could not be invoked for trivial issues, the Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading to the East Indies issued a charter, with the approval of King James II, on December 30, 1687, declaring the “Town of Fort St. George, commonly called the Christian Town and Citty of Madrassapatam upon the Coast of Choromandel in the East Indies, and all the Territorys thereunto belonging, not exceeding the distance of 10 miles from Fort St. George, to be a Corporation”.
