Supreme Court of India

The Supreme Court of India (Hindi: भारत का उच्चतम न्यायालय, IAST: Bhārat kā Uccatam Nyāyālay) is the supreme judicial authority and the highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also has the power of judicial review. The Supreme Court, which consists of the Chief Justice of India and a maximum of fellow 33 judges, has extensive powers in the form of original, appellate and advisory jurisdictions. As the apex constitutional court, it takes up appeals primarily against verdicts of the High Courts of various states and tribunals. As an advisory court, it hears matters which are referred by the President of India. Under judicial review, the court invalidates both normal laws as well as constitutional amendments that violate the Basic structure doctrine. It is required to safeguard the fundamental rights of citizens and settles legal disputes among the central government and various state governments. Its decisions are binding on other Indian courts as well as the union and state governments. As per the Article 142 of the Constitution, the court is conferred with the inherent jurisdiction to pass any order deemed necessary in the interest of complete justice which becomes binding on the President to enforce. The Supreme Court replaced the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the highest court of appeal since 28 January 1950, two days after India was declared a republic. With the Indian Constitution granting it far-reaching authority to initiate actions, exercise appellate authority over all other courts in the country with the power to review constitutional amendments, India's Supreme Court is regarded as one of the most powerful supreme courts in the world. In 1861, the Indian High Courts Act 1861 was enacted to create high courts for various provinces and abolish Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and also the sadar adalats in presidency towns in their respective regions.

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Related concepts (44)

Government of India

The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), also known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national authority of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, consisting of 28 union states and eight union territories. The government, seated in New Delhi, has three primary branches: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary, whose powers are vested in a bicameral Parliament, a Prime Minister, and the Supreme Court respectively, with a President as Head of State.

Supreme Court of India

Original jurisdiction

In common law legal systems, original jurisdiction of a court is the power to hear a case for the first time, as opposed to appellate jurisdiction, when a higher court has the power to review a lower court's decision. In India, the Supreme Court has original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. Its exclusive original jurisdiction extends to all cases between the Government of India and the States of India or between Government of India and states on one side and one or more states on the other side or cases between different states.