The Indian judicial system follows a three-tier structure with the Supreme Court at the top, High Courts below it, and district and lower courts at the bottom. It also includes specialized tribunals and traditional village courts. Cases can be appealed from lower to higher courts, with the Supreme Court being the final authority on interpreting the constitution and laws of India.

1. INDIAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM
Chief justice of India
Supreme court, Delhi High court, Mumbai
Lawyers
District Court
Accused send in jail

2. Types of Courts in India

There are 3 types of courts in India:-
Judiciary
Supreme
court
High
court
District
courts

3. Indian Judicial System
• The three-tiered system of Indian judiciary
comprises of Supreme Court (New Delhi) at its
helm;
• High Courts standing at the head of state judicial
system;
• Followed by district and sessions courts in the
judicial districts, into which the states are divided.
• The lower rung of the system then comprises of
courts of civil (civil judges) & criminal
(judicial/metropolitan magistrates) jurisdiction..

4. Indian Judicial System
• Besides, a number of judicial Tribunals have been set
up in specialized areas.
• The significant Tribunals are: Company Law Board;
Securities Appellate Tribunal; Competition
Commission of India (CCI); Consumer Protection
Forum; Board for Industrial and Financial
Reconstruction; Customs and Excise Control Tribunal;
Tax Tribunal, etc.

5. Structure
Supreme
Court
High Court
District
Court
Civil Judge
Small Civil
Cases
Criminal
Magistrate

6. The Supreme Court
• On the 28th of January, 1950, the Supreme Court
came into being.
• The judges of the Supreme Court at the time of
inauguration were Chief Justice Harilal J. Kania and
Justices Saiyid Fazl Ali, M. Patanjali Sastri, Mehr
Chand Mahajan, Bijan Kumar Mukherjee and S. R.
Das.
• The first Attorney General for India was Mr. M.C.
Setalvad.

7. The Supreme Court
• The Supreme Court of India comprises the Chief Justice
and not more than 30 other Judges appointed by the
President of India.
• The proceedings of the Supreme Court are conducted
in English only.
• The Registry of the Supreme Court is headed by the
Registrar General.

8. The Supreme Court
• Term length: age of 65 yrs.
• Constituting instrument: Constitution of India (under
Article 124)
• Formation: 1950
• First holder: Justice H. J. Kania (26/01/1950 - 06/11/1951)
• Final holder: Justice Rajendra Mal Lodha (27/04/2014 -
27/09/2014)

9. The Supreme Court of India

10. Chief Justice of India
H.L. Dattu
since 28 September,
2014

11. Appointment of Judges
• Appointed by the President of India.
• Citizen of India.
• High Court Judge for at least 5 years
OR
High Court Advocate for at least 10 years
OR
Distinguished Jurist
• Hold office till the age 65.

12. Removal of a Judge
• Article 124(4) of Constitution of India lays
down the procedure for removal of a Judge
of Supreme Court which is applicable to
Chief Justice as well.
• He can be removed only through a process
of impeachment by Parliament.

13. Contd..
• A Judge of the Supreme Court shall not be removed
from his office except by an order of the President
passed after an address by each House of
Parliament supported by a majority of the total
membership of that House and by a majority of not
less than two-thirds of the members of that House
present and voting has been presented to the
President in the same session for such removal on
the ground of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.—
Article 124(4), Constitution of India.

14. Acting President
• The constitution of India provides that the Chief Justice of
India (CJI) shall act as the President of India in the event of
the offices of both the President and the Vice President
being vacant.
• When President Zakir Hussain died in office, the Vice
President VV Giri, acted as the President. Later, Mr. Giri
resigned as the Vice President. The CJI, Justice Hidayatullah
then became the acting President of India. The senior-most
judge of the Supreme Court became the acting Chief Justice
of India. When the newly elected President took office a
month later, Justice Hidayatullah reverted as the Chief
Justice of India.

15. Remuneration
• The Constitution of India gives the power of deciding
remuneration as well as other conditions of service of the
Chief Justice to the Parliament of India. Accordingly, such
provisions have been laid down in The Supreme Court
Judges (Salaries and Conditions of Service) Act, 1958.
• The sixth central pay commission recommended revision in
the salaries and other allowances and pensionary benefits
of the central government employees, including the high
court and supreme court judges and all India services. The
government has accepted the majority of
recommendations of the commission and issued orders.

16. Contd..
• Salary of Chief Justice of India
• Date Salary
1 January, 1996 33,000 (US$520)
1 January, 2006 1,00,000 (US$1,600)

17. Guardian of the Constitution
• Supreme court enjoys the privilege of protecting the
constitution against violation of its provisions either
by government or by the people.
• It acts as the watch tower of the constitution and
also exercise the power of interpreting the contents
of the constitution.

18. Miscellaneous
• Transfer of Cases, Appeals from one High Court to another.
• Withdrawal of cases from High Court.
• Precedent: Law declared by Supreme Court binding on all
courts. (Art. 141).
• Art. 142: Doing complete justice.
• Rule making power
• Interpretation of the Constitution
• Power of Judicial Review (Invalidating laws and executive
actions)

19. Caselet 1
• Indira Gandhi Vs Raj Narain 1975
Indira Gandhi declared Emergency after being
ordered by the Allahabad High Court to vacate her
seat for malpractice. The Supreme Court later
overturned the decision.

20. Caselet 2
• NOTA (2013)
• What: Right to negative vote.
• Case Speak: On October 14, the Supreme Court
recognised the right to negative vote for the electorate
in the country. The voters will now have a “None of the
Above” option if they don’t feel that the candidates
deserve a vote. “Negative voting will lead to systemic
change in polls and political parties will be forced to
project clean candidates. If the right to vote is a
statutory right, then the right to reject candidate is a
fundamental right of speech and expression under
Constitution,” the court said.

21. Disproportionate Asset case against
Jayalalithaa
• Jayalalithaa Jayaram (born 24 February 1948), commonly referred
to as Jayalalithaa, is an Indian politician who is a former Chief
Minister of Tamil Nadu convicted for misusing her office during her
tenure of 1991-96 to amass properties worth 66.65 crores.
• The assets under the purview of the case are the farm houses and
bungalows in Chennai, agricultural land in Tamil Nadu, a farm house
in Hyderabad, a tea estate in the Nilgiris, valuable jewelry, industrial
sheds, cash deposits and investments in banks and investments and
a set of luxury cars.
• A raid in her Poes garden residence in 1997 recovered 800 kg
(1,800 lb) silver, 28 kg (62 lb) gold, 750 pairs of shoes, 10,500
sarees, 91 watches and other valuables. The valuables were kept in
a vault in Reserve Bank of India in Chennai.

22. Contd..
• The opposition party petitioned to request the court to
take the control of the assets, but the special judge
John Michael Cunha who inspected the assets on 7
January 2014, ordered the assets to be transferred to
Bangalore.
• The judgement of the case was pronounced on 27
September 2014 in the Special Court which convincted
all four including Jayalalithaa guilty. Jayalalithaa was
sentenced to four years simple imprisonment under
sections 13 (1) (e) and 13(2) of the Prevention of
Corruption Act and imposed a fine of 100 crores, which
would be adjusted against the properties already
confiscated.

23. The High Court
• The High Courts are generally the last court of
regular appeal.
• It has the power to supervise the subordinate
courts falling within its territorial jurisdiction.
• The High Courts are Courts of Record.

24. The High Court
• The High Court hears First Appeals from the decisions
of the District Courts.
• On the Criminal side, the High Court has to confirm all
sentences of death passed by Courts of Sessions and
hear References in this behalf.
• High Court hears Criminal Appeals from convictions
awarded by Sessions Judges and Additional Sessions
Judges or from the judgment of any other Court, where
a sentence for more than seven years imprisonment
has been passed.

25. List of High Courts in India
1. High Court of Judicature at Allahabad
2. High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad
3. Bombay High Court
4. Calcutta High Court
5. Chhattisgarh High Court
6. Delhi High Court
7. Gauhati High Court
8. Gujarat High Court
9. Himachal Pradesh High Court
10. Jammu and Kashmir High Court
11. Jharkhand High Court

26. List of High Courts in India
12. Karnataka High Court
13. Kerala High Court
14. Madhya Pradesh High Court
15. Madras High Court
16. Manipur High Court
17. Meghalaya High Court
18. Orissa High Court
19. Patna High Court
20. Punjab and Haryana High Court
21. Rajasthan High Court
22. Sikkim High Court
23. Tripura High Court
24. Uttarakhand High Court

27. The Subordinate Courts
• The subordinate Courts are:
(a) District Courts, empowered to hear appeals
from courts of original civil jurisdiction besides
having original civil jurisdiction
(b) Sessions Court is courts of criminal jurisdiction,
having the similar scope of powers.

28. The District Court
• The District Courts of India are established by
the State governments in India for every
district or for one or more districts together
taking into account the number of cases,
population distribution in the district.
• They administer justice in India at a district
level.

29. The District Court
• The district court is presided over by one District Judge .
• In addition to the district judge there may be number of
Additional District Judges and Assistant District Judges
depending on the workload.
• These courts are under administrative control of the High
Court of the State to which the district concerned belongs.
The decisions of District court are subject to the appellate
jurisdiction of the concerned High court.

30. Appointment
• Appointment of district judge and other Additional and
Assistant district judges is done by the state
Government in consultation with the High court of the
state.
• A minimum of seven years of practice as a lawyer at
bar is a necessary qualification.
• District judges are also appointed by way of elevation
of judges from courts subordinate to district courts
provided they fulfill the minimum years of service.

31. District Courts in India
• Andhra Pradesh (23)
• Assam (23)
• Chattisgarh (16)
• Goa (2)
• Madhya Pradesh (48)
• Maharashtra (35)
• Uttarakhand (13)
• Uttar Pradesh (70)
• Tamil Nadu (29)
• Rajasthan (33)
• Gujarat (26)
• West Bengal (23)

32. District Courts in Union Territories
• Chandigarh (1)
• Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1)
• Daman and Diu (2)
• Lakshadweep (1)
• Puducherry (4)

33. Village Courts
• Village courts, called Lok Adalat (people's court) or
Nyaya Panchayat (justice of the villages), compose a
system of alternative dispute resolution.

34. Lok Adaalat
• Lok Adalat is a system of alternative dispute resolution
developed in India. It roughly means "People's court".
• The system of Lok Adalats is based on the principles of the
Panch Parmeshwar of Gram Panchayats which were also
proposed by Mahatma Gandhi.
• The idea of Lok Adalat was mainly advocated by Justice P.N.
Bhagwati, a former Chief Justice of India.
• They are held periodically for exercising such jurisdiction as
they determine.
• The first Lok Adalat was held on March 14, 1982 in Gujarat.

35. Contd..
• The disputing parties plead their case themselves in
Lok Adaalats.
• Witnesses are not examined.
• No court fees is levied.
• Speedy justice is given to the people of all classes of
society.
• It was the Legal Services Authority Act 1987, which
gave statutory status to Lok Adalat.