The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judicial institution and the highest constitutional court in the country, established under Chapter IV of Part V of the Constitution. It was inaugurated on January 28, 1950, two days after the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950, replacing the Federal Court of India and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the final court of appeal. This creation solved the problem of establishing an independent, final judicial authority for the new republic, tasked with safeguarding the fundamental rights of citizens and interpreting the Constitution.
The Court's structure and powers are primarily defined in Articles 124 to 147. It functions with a maximum sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India, a number last increased in 2019. Its mechanism includes original jurisdiction (Article 131) for disputes between the Union and States, appellate jurisdiction over all High Courts, and advisory jurisdiction (Article 143) when the President seeks its opinion. The law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all courts within India.
A key concept connected to the Supreme Court is judicial review, which allows it to strike down legislative and executive actions that violate the Constitution. This power is famously linked to the Basic Structure doctrine, established in the landmark judgment of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala in 1973, which held that Parliament cannot amend the Constitution to alter its fundamental features. A recent significant change occurred in 2015, when the Court struck down the 99th Constitutional Amendment Act, 2014, which sought to replace the Collegium system for judicial appointments with the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), reaffirming the independence of the judiciary.