The new Supreme Court Flag

Recently, the President of India, unveiled the new Supreme Court Flag & Insignia.

GS-02 (Government policies and interventions)

The symbols in the flag – The Ashoka Chakra, Supreme Court building and the Constitution of India, features India’s legal and cultural heritage.
The new flag is Blue in color.
The insignia has two words – “Supreme Court of India and Yato Dharmastato Jayah” in the Devanagiri script.
Yato Dharmastato Jayah is a Sanskrit word which means – “Victory lies where Dharma(righteousness) prevails“.

History of the Supreme Court of India:

Supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta as a Court of Record, with full power & authority was established through the Regulating Act of 1773.
King George – III, in the year 1800 and 1823 established the Supreme Courts at Madras and Bombay respectively.
The India High Courts Act 1861 created High Courts for various provinces and abolished Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and also the Sadar Adalats in Presidency towns.
Until the creation of the Federal Court of India under the Government of India Act 1935, these high courts had the distinction of being the highest Courts for all cases .
The Federal Court had jurisdiction to solve disputes between provinces and federal states and hear appeal against Judgements from High Courts.
After independence in 1947, with the Constitution of India coming into being on 26 January 1950, the Supreme Court of India also came into existence.
The first sitting of the Supreme Court of India was held on 28 January 1950.

The Indian constitution provides for a provision of Supreme Court under Part V (The Union) and Chapter 6 (The Union Judiciary).
Articles 124 to 147 in Part V of the Constitution deal with the organization, independence, jurisdiction, powers and procedures of the Supreme Court.
Article 124(1): It states that there shall be a Supreme Court of India constituting of a Chief Justice of India (CJI) and, until Parliament by law prescribes a larger number, of not more than seven other Judges.

Currently, the Supreme Court consists of one chief justice and thirty three other judges.
Originally, the strength was fixed at eight (one chief justice and seven other judges).
The Constitution declares Delhi as the seat of the Supreme Court. Consequently, it also authorizes the CJI to appoint other place or places as seat of the Supreme Court. And this decision to move the seat can be done only with the approval of the President. This provision is only optional and not compulsory.
This means that no court can give any direction either to the President or to the Chief Justice to appoint any other place as the seat of the Supreme Court.

President appoints the judges of the Supreme Court.
The CJI is appointed by the President after consultation with such judges of the Supreme Court and high courts as he deems necessary.
The remaining judges are further appointed by the President after consultation with the CJI and such other judges of the Supreme Court and the high courts as he deems necessary.
However, the consultation with the chief justice is mandatory in the case of appointment of a judge other than Chief justice.

The general practice was to appoint the senior most judge of the Supreme Court as the chief justice of India. However, This trend was violated in 1973 when A N Ray was appointed as the Chief Justice of India by superseding three senior judges.
In 1977, M U Beg was appointed as the chief justice of India, again by superseding the then senior-most judge.
This discretion of the government was curtailed by the Supreme Court in the Second Judges Case (1993).
Second Judges Case (1993): The Supreme Court ruled that the senior most judge of the Supreme Court should alone be appointed to the office of the Chief Justice of India.