The Supreme Court and the High Courts

The judiciary is the third organ of the State. It settles disputes, punishes those who break the law, protects the rights of the people and makes sure that the legislature and the executive stay within the limits set by the Constitution. Unlike the United States, India has a single, integrated system of courts: the Supreme Court at the top, a High Court for each state or group of states below it, and district and subordinate courts below them. All of them apply both Union and state laws.

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court (Article 124) sits in New Delhi. It was inaugurated on 28 January 1950, two days after the Constitution came into force. It consists of the Chief Justice of India and other judges; the number is fixed by Parliament and has been raised from time to time.

Judges

• Judges are appointed by the President. In practice the names are recommended by a group of the senior-most judges, known as the collegium, a system that grew out of the Supreme Court's own judgments.
• A judge must be a citizen of India and must have been a High Court judge for at least five years, or a High Court advocate for at least ten years, or be, in the opinion of the President, a distinguished jurist.
• A Supreme Court judge holds office until the age of 65.
• A judge can be removed only by an order of the President, after each house of Parliament has passed an address by a majority of its total membership and two-thirds of the members present and voting, on the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

Fixed tenure, a difficult removal process, salaries charged on the Consolidated Fund and a bar on practising in any court after retirement all protect the independence of the judges.

Jurisdiction

• Original (Article 131): disputes between the Union and one or more states, or between states, come directly to the Supreme Court.
• Writ (Article 32): anyone can approach it directly for the enforcement of Fundamental Rights.
• Appellate (Articles 132 to 136): it hears appeals from the High Courts in constitutional, civil and criminal cases. Under Article 136 it can grant special leave to appeal from any court or tribunal.
• Advisory (Article 143): the President can seek its opinion on a question of law or fact of public importance.

The Supreme Court is a court of record (Article 129): its judgments are preserved as authority, and it can punish for contempt of itself. The law it declares is binding on all courts in India (Article 141). It can review its own judgments (Article 137) and can pass any order needed to do complete justice in a case (Article 142). It is the final interpreter and the guardian of the Constitution.

The High Courts

Article 214 provides a High Court for each state; Parliament may set up a common High Court for two or more states (Article 231), as it has done for Punjab and Haryana.

• High Court judges are appointed by the President and hold office until the age of 62. They are removed in the same way as Supreme Court judges.
• Under Article 226, a High Court can issue writs not only to enforce Fundamental Rights but also "for any other purpose", which makes its writ power wider than that of the Supreme Court in this respect.
• Under Article 227, it supervises all courts and tribunals in its territory. It is also a court of record (Article 215).

Subordinate courts

Below the High Court are the district courts and other lower courts (Articles 233 to 237). The District Judge is the highest judicial officer of a district. District judges are appointed by the Governor in consultation with the High Court.

Judicial review and public interest litigation

The power of the Supreme Court and the High Courts to examine laws and government actions and strike down those that violate the Constitution is called judicial review. Since the 1980s the courts have also allowed public interest litigation (PIL): any public-spirited person can bring a case on behalf of people who are too poor or weak to approach the court themselves.