The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court sits at the very top of India’s judicial system. It began in 1950 with just eight judges. Today it has thirty-eight. But its central job has never changed. It is the final court of appeal, and the guardian of the Constitution. This lesson walks through its powers, its biggest institutional battles, and the landmark rulings that shaped it.

1Chapter 1: The Final Court

Must Know

One apex court

• Article 124 creates the Supreme Court of India.
• It is a single, unified apex court above every High Court and lower court.
• It is not one court per state.
• It opened in 1950 with just eight judges.
• Parliament has raised that number several times.
• The sanctioned strength now stands at thirty-eight, including the Chief Justice.
• The Chief Justice of India (CJI) leads the Court and presides over its most important benches.
• Three basics: Article 124, 1950, and today’s strength. Examiners return to all three.

Three jurisdictions

• Original (Article 131): the Court hears certain disputes directly, with no lower court first. These are mostly disputes between the Union and States, or between States.
• Appellate: it hears appeals against decisions of High Courts and tribunals. It is the last stop in the chain.
• Advisory (Article 143): the President can ask the Court for its opinion on a question of law.
• An advisory opinion is influential, but not binding like a normal judgment.

2Chapter 2: Articles 124 to 130: Building the Court

Good to Know

The foundation

• 124: establishes the Court and sets out how judges are appointed and how many there can be.
• 125: fixes judges’ salaries.
• 126: covers what happens when the CJI’s seat is empty or the CJI cannot act. The President appoints an acting Chief Justice from among the sitting judges.
• 127: lets the CJI call in “ad hoc” judges, usually a senior High Court judge, when there are not enough sitting judges.
• 128: lets even a retired Supreme Court judge sit again temporarily, with the President’s consent and the judge’s own agreement.
• 129: declares the Court a “court of record”. Its judgments are permanently kept and can be cited as binding precedent. It can punish for contempt of itself.
• 130: fixes the seat in Delhi, unless the CJI, with the President’s approval, decides otherwise.

3Chapter 3: Articles 131 to 147: What the Court Can Do

Good to Know

Cases it can hear

• 131: original jurisdiction over disputes between the Union and States, or between States.
• 132–134: appellate jurisdiction in three lanes: constitutional cases (132), civil cases (133) and criminal cases (134). Each lane has its own rules for when an appeal is allowed.
• 134A: a High Court must consider, right after its judgment, whether to issue a certificate letting a case move up to the Supreme Court.
• 135: whatever jurisdiction the old Federal Court held before 1950 now belongs to the Supreme Court.
• 136: “Special Leave to Appeal”. The Court may accept an appeal against almost any judgment from almost any court or tribunal, even where no other appeal route exists. It is deliberately broad and discretionary.
• 137: the Court can review its own past judgments.
• 138: Parliament can expand the Court’s jurisdiction by law.
• 139: Parliament can hand the Court extra writ-issuing powers beyond Fundamental Rights.
• 139A: the Court can transfer a case from one High Court to another, or to itself.

Working powers

• 140: Parliament can give the Court further “ancillary” powers.
• 141: law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on every other court in India.
• 142: the Court can pass any order needed for “complete justice”.
• 143: the advisory jurisdiction.
• 144: every civil and judicial authority must act in aid of the Supreme Court.
• 145: the Court makes its own procedural rules, including how many judges sit on a type of case.
• 146: the Chief Justice controls appointment of the Court’s staff and officers.
• 147: interpretation of terms in this chapter.

4Chapter 4: Judicial Review and Court of Record

Good to Know

Judicial review

• Judicial review is the Court’s power to check a law passed by the legislature, or an action of the executive.
• The question is always whether it fits within the Constitution.
• The Court does not judge whether a law is wise or fair. Those questions belong to the elected legislature.
• The Court is often called the “custodian of the Constitution”.
• It guards the basic structure and can strike down anything that breaches it, even a constitutional amendment.
• Read more: Amending the Constitution and the Basic Structure Doctrine.

Court of record and contempt

• Every decision is permanently recorded and stands as binding precedent.
• The Court can punish for contempt of itself, to protect its authority.
• High Courts share this status. Subordinate courts do not.
• The Constitution itself gives this power under Articles 129 and 215.
• The Contempt of Courts Act, 1971 came later, after the Sanyal Committee. It implements the power. It does not create it.

Article 142: complete justice

• Article 142 lets the Court pass any order needed for “complete justice” in a case before it.
• It operates until Parliament makes a law on the subject.
• The Court has said it cannot use Article 142 to override clear, substantive statutory provisions.
• In practice it has used the power to unlock cases stuck in procedural deadlock and to shape major outcomes.
• It is a flexible instrument of last resort.

5Chapter 5: Collegium vs NJAC

Great to Know

The collegium

• The collegium is a small group of the Court’s own senior judges, led by the Chief Justice, who decide who becomes a judge.
• The President formally appoints every judge, but in practice follows the collegium’s recommendation.
• Read more: The Judiciary: Structure and Judicial Appointments.

The Judges Cases

• The First Judges Case is also called the Judges’ Transfer Case.
• The Third Judges Case is not a normal case. No two parties sued each other. It was a Presidential Reference.
• In 2014, Parliament created the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC). It would have included the Law Minister and two “eminent persons” alongside judges.
• The Court struck it down in 2015, and the collegium survived.
• So 1981 gave power to the executive. 1993 took it back for the judiciary. 1998 fine-tuned who sits on the collegium.
• The long tug-of-war: who should pick India’s judges, judges alone, or judges with elected politicians? So far the Court has answered: judges alone.

PIL: opening the court

• Public Interest Litigation lets a person file a case for the public good, even if not personally affected.
• It was pioneered under Chief Justice P.N. Bhagwati.
• He relaxed the strict rules about who has “standing” to bring a case.
• PIL has powered environmental orders, corruption cases and rights-based challenges.

6Chapter 6: Past Papers

Exam Point of View

UPSC 2017: what judicial review means

• The answer: the power of the judiciary to pronounce on the constitutionality of laws and executive orders.
• The trap describes judicial review as questioning the “wisdom” of laws.
• (Source: UPSC CSP 2017, Q92.)

CAPF 2021: the power High Courts also share

• The answer: the power of a “court of record”.
• Advisory jurisdiction and Special Leave Petitions belong to the Supreme Court alone.
• (Source: CAPF (ACs) 2021, Q46.)

UPSC 2022: where the contempt power comes from

• The Constitution itself empowers both the Supreme Court and High Courts to punish for contempt of themselves.
• The power traces to Articles 129 and 215.
• (Source: UPSC CSP 2022, Q11.)

CDS 2017: the Chief Justice behind PIL

• The answer: P.N. Bhagwati.
• (Source: CDS (I) 2017, Q90.)

CAPF 2018: the judgment behind executive primacy

• The answer: S.P. Gupta v. Union of India, the First Judges Case, 1981.
• The trap is confusing it with the Second Judges Case (1993), which created the collegium.
• (Source: CAPF (ACs) 2018, Q71.)

UPSC 2019: what happened to the NJAC

• The Supreme Court struck down the 99th Amendment that created the NJAC, as violating the basic structure.
• The amendment came in 2014. The Fourth Judges Case struck it down in 2015.
• (Source: UPSC CSP 2019, Q45.)

7Chapter 7: The Court in the News

Current Affairs

Justice Surya Kant, 53rd CJI

• Justice Surya Kant took over as the 53rd Chief Justice of India on 24 November 2025. (Source: All India Radio.)
• He succeeded Justice B.R. Gavai.
• Justice Gavai had held the office after Justice Sanjiv Khanna, the 51st CJI from November 2024 to May 2025.
• Three Chief Justices within about a year shows how the office rotates by seniority.
• Terms can be short, depending on when a judge reaches the retirement age of 65.

Five new judges, June 2026

• Five judges were elevated to the Supreme Court on 1 June 2026, taking office the next day. (Source: SCC Online.)
• This brought the Court closer to its sanctioned strength of thirty-eight.
• Near-full strength directly affects how fast the Court can work through its backlog.

Quick Q&A

• Article creating SC? 124.
• Year it opened? 1950.
• Sanctioned strength? 38 including CJI.
• Fourth Judges Case year? 2015.
• Who pioneered PIL? P.N. Bhagwati.