High Court Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh

The High Court Division is one of the two divisions of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, the other being the Appellate Division. It is popularly called the High Court and consists of the Chief Justice of Bangladesh and the other judges assigned to it. The division exercises original and appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, but its primary jurisdiction is writ jurisdiction: under article 102 of the Constitution of Bangladesh it may issue writs of certiorari, mandamus, quo warranto, prohibition and habeas corpus. Its history runs back to the High Court of Judicature for East Bengal, set up in 1947, which became the High Court of East Pakistan in 1956. After independence the High Court of Bangladesh Order of 17 January 1972 regularized the system, and the Constitution of Bangladesh then established the Supreme Court in two divisions.