The Supreme Court of India came into existence on 26th January 1950, the day when an independent India joined the comity of nations as a Sovereign, Democratic Republic. Its inaugural session took place on January 28, 1950, in the Chamber of Princes in the Parliament Building, New Delhi. The Federal Court of India had its inaugural in 1937 in the same chamber where it sat for 12 years until the Supreme Court replaced it. The Chamber remained the seat of the Supreme Court until 1958, till it acquired a building of its own, located on the Mathura Road in New Delhi. The building is shaped to project the image of scales of justice. The Central Wing of the building is the Centre Beam of the Scales. In 1979, two New Wings - the East Wing and the West Wing - were added to the complex. In all there are 15 Court Rooms in the various wings of the building. The Chief Justice's Court is the largest of the Courts located in the Centre of the Central Wing.
Image shows Hon'ble Shri Harilal J. Kania, Chief Justice of India and other Hon'ble Judges of the Supreme Court of India on the dais on the inaugural sitting of the Supreme Court of India. January 28, 1950.
Image shows Dr.Rajendra Prasad, H.E. the President of India, Hon'ble Shri S.R. Das, Chief Justice of India, Dr. S.Radhakrishnan, Vice -President of India, Shri Ananthasayanam Ayyangar, Speaker, Lok Sabha and Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India on the occasion of inauguration of the Supreme Court of India Building - August 4, 1958.
The Court has played a very significant and productive role in laying the foundations of Constitutional Law & Practice. It has also exercised advisory jurisdiction. Its immediate predecessor, the Federal Court, too stood firm between the arbitrary action of the Executive and the people. The Federal Court has left behind a tradition of erudition, independence and courage which the Supreme Court has kept up. The Supreme Court is rightly a confluence of many traditions and many parts. It sees itself as an integrated whole. This exhibition is meant to show all that has gone into the Indian legal system at the apex of which is the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court Bar Association is the bar of the highest court.The inaugural proceedings were simple but impressive. They began at 9.45 a.m. when the Judges of the Federal Court - Chief Justice Harilal J.Kania and Justices Saiyid Fazl Ali, M. Patanjali Sastri, Mehr Chand Mahajan, Bijan Kumar Mukherjea and S.R.Das - took their seats. In attendance were the Chief Justices of the High Courts of Allahabad, Bombay, Madras, Orissa, Assam, Nagpur, Punjab, Saurashtra, Patiala and the East Punjab States Union, Mysore, Hyderabad, Madhya Bharat and Travancore-Cochin. Along with the Attorney General for India, M.C. Setalvad were present the Advocate Generals of Bombay, Madras, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, East Punjab, Orissa, Mysore, Hyderabad and Madhya Bharat. Present too, were Prime Minister, \other Ministers, Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives of foreign States, a large number of Senior and other Advocates of the Court and other distinguished visitors.Taking care to ensure that the Rules of the Supreme Court were published and the names of all the Advocates and agents of the Federal Court were brought on the rolls of the Supreme Court, the inaugural proceedings were over and put under part of the record of the Supreme Court
A section of Exhibition 'Alipore Bomb Conspiracy Case - A Pre-Independence Trial' is on view in the Supreme Court Museum - May 13, 2006 to October 30, 2006 .
The original Constitution of India (1950) provisioned for a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and 7 lower-ranking Judges—leaving it to Parliament to increase this number. In the early years, a full bench of the Supreme Court sat together to hear the cases presented before them. As the work of the Court increased and cases began to accumulate, Parliament increased the number of Judges from 8 in 1950 to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in 1978 and 26 in 1986. As the number of the Judges has increased, they sit in smaller Benches of two and three (referred to as a Division Bench —coming together in larger Benches of 5 and more only when required (referred to as a Constitutional Bench)to do so or to settle a difference of opinion or controversy. Any bench may refer the case up to a larger bench if the need to do so arises. The Supreme Court of India comprises the Chief Justice and not more than 25 other Judges appointed by the President of India. Supreme Court Judges retire upon attaining the age of 65 years. In order to be appointed as a Judge of the Supreme Court, a person must be a citizen of India and must have been, for atleast five years, a Judge of a High Court or of two or more such Courts in succession, or an Advocate of a High Court or of two or more such Courts in succession for at least 10 years or he must be, in the opinion of the President, a distinguished jurist. Provisions exist for the appointment of a Judge of a High Court as an Ad-hoc Judge of the Supreme Court and for retired Judges of the Supreme Court or High Courts to sit and act as Judges of that Court.
On the right: The Supreme court illuminated on the ocassion of the Golden jubilee.
Stamp released by Shri Krishan Kant, H.E. the Vice-President of India, in the presence of Hon'ble Dr. A.S. Anand, the Chief Justice of India, Shri Atal Bihari Bajpai, Prime Minister of India and Shri Ram Jathmalani, Union Minister of Law & Justice on the occasion of 'Law Day' function to commemorate the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the Supreme Court of India at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.November 26, 1999