Three-Tier Court Hierarchy
Definition
The layered structure of magistrate courts, the Sessions Court and the High Court, with the Supreme Court of India above them, through which a criminal case moves as its stakes and its stage of appeal rise.
Related terms
- Adversarial System
- A legal model in which two opposing parties (prosecution and defence, or claimant and defendant) present competing cases to a neutral decision-maker....
- Correctional Administration
- The state department, usually called the prisons or correctional services department, that runs jails and central prisons and administers parole and remission.
- Crime Control Model
- A description of criminal justice, associated with the legal scholar Herbert Packer, that prizes speed and finality in processing cases and treats...
- Directorate of Prosecution
- The state-level office that appoints and supervises Public Prosecutors and Assistant Public Prosecutors, kept administratively separate from the police under the criminal...
- Due Process Model
- The competing description Packer set against the crime control model, which prizes procedural safeguards for the accused, such as a fair hearing...
- Inquisitorial System
- A model of legal proceedings, common in civil-law countries such as France and Germany, in which the court takes an active role...