Supreme Court

The Supreme Court is the apex judicial body whose decisions bind all subordinate courts and authorities within a jurisdiction. In India it is established by Article 124 of the Constitution and seated at New Delhi, comprising the Chief Justice of India and a sanctioned strength of 34 judges. In Bangladesh, the Supreme Court is created by Article 94 of the 1972 Constitution and consists of two divisions — the Appellate Division and the High Court Division — headed by the Chief Justice. The court derives its authority directly from the written constitution and functions as the guardian of fundamental rights and the ultimate interpreter of constitutional text. Its independence is secured through fixed tenure, security of salary charged on the Consolidated Fund, and a constitutionally entrenched removal procedure requiring a parliamentary address on grounds of proved misbehaviour or incapacity.

The court's jurisdiction is typically threefold. Original jurisdiction allows it to hear disputes between the Union and States or between States (Article 131 in India) and to entertain writ petitions for enforcement of fundamental rights (Article 32 in India, Article 102 in Bangladesh empowering the High Court Division to issue writs). Appellate jurisdiction extends to constitutional, civil and criminal matters, with discretionary special leave under Article 136 (India). Advisory jurisdiction permits the President to seek the court's opinion on questions of law or fact of public importance (Article 143 India, Article 106 Bangladesh). The doctrine of judicial review — the power to strike down legislation and executive action repugnant to the constitution — is the court's defining feature, reinforced in India by the basic structure doctrine propounded in Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala (1973), which holds that Parliament cannot amend the constitution's essential framework even under Article 368.

The Indian Supreme Court has driven environmental jurisprudence relevant to the UPSC ecology paper: in M.C. Mehta v. Union of India it evolved the absolute liability principle (Oleum Gas Leak case, 1986) and the polluter pays and precautionary principles (Vellore Citizens' Welfare Forum, 1996), reading the right to a healthy environment into Article 21. It also created the National Green Tribunal architecture through public interest litigation and continuing mandamus. In Bangladesh, the Appellate Division's rulings — including the Eighth Amendment Case (Anwar Hossain Chowdhury, 1989) which imported a basic-structure analogue, and judgments restoring secularism after the Fifth and Thirteenth Amendment verdicts — shape that country's constitutional trajectory. As of 2026 both courts remain the final constitutional arbiters in their respective states.

For the BCS Bangladesh Affairs paper, candidates must know the two-division structure under Article 94, the writ powers under Article 102, judicial appointment and removal under the Supreme Judicial Council, and landmark amendment cases. For UPSC, the Supreme Court appears in Polity (composition, jurisdiction, judicial review, collegium system) and prominently in Environment & Ecology, where examiners ask candidates to link specific cases to the precautionary, polluter-pays and sustainable-development principles. The typical question angle compares original versus appellate jurisdiction or asks how PIL expanded locus standi.