One High Court for two union territories: the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh

Background

The court's own record states that the full-fledged High Court of Judicature for the Jammu and Kashmir State was established in the year 1928. Before that the Ruler of the State was the final authority in the administration of justice, and from 1889 the judicial member of a Council exercised the appellate powers on both the civil and the criminal side.
By virtue of Order No. 1 dated 26.3.1928 the High Court of Judicature was established, and for the first time the High Court was to consist of The Chief Justice and two Judges. The usual places of sitting of the High Court used to be Jammu and Srinagar. On 10.9.1943, Letters Patent was conferred on the High Court.
In 1954, by the Constitution Application Order of 1954, the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court was extended to the State of Jammu and Kashmir, and the High Court was for the first time given the power to issue writs for enforcement of the fundamental rights so far as they were applicable there.
A Board of Judicial Advisers, akin to the Privy Council in British India, advised the Ruler on appeals against High Court decisions. When the Board was abolished it had 17 appeals pending. A Special Bench of the Supreme Court of India was constituted to dispose of them and heard the appeals in Srinagar, upholding the judgement of the High Court in all 17. The court records this as the sole instance till date of a Bench of the Supreme Court holding a sitting outside its seat at Delhi.
The court is now the High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, with a sanctioned strength of 25 Judges, and its rules and district judiciary cover the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh. From May to end October the Chief Justice and the Administrative Wing shift to Srinagar, and from November to end April the headquarters is at Jammu; the court sections of both the Jammu and Srinagar wings function throughout the year.