In 1861 the Indian High Courts Act 1861 was enacte...

In 1861 the Indian High Courts Act 1861 was enacted to create high courts for various provinces and abolished supreme courts at Calcutta, Madras and Bombay and also the sadar adalats in presidency towns which had acted as the highest court in their respective regions. These new high courts had the distinction of being the highest courts for all cases till the creation of Federal Court of India under the Government of India Act 1935. The Federal Court had jurisdiction to solve disputes between provinces and federal states and hear appeal against judgements of the high courts. The first CJI of India was H.J.Kania.[4]

The Supreme Court of India came into being on 28 January 1950.[5] It replaced both the Federal Court of India and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council which were then at the apex of the Indian court system.

Supreme court initially had its seat at Chamber of Princes in the parliament building where the previous Federal Court of India sat from 1937 to 1950. The first Chief Justice of India was Sir H J Kania. In 1958, the supreme court moved to its present premises. Originally, the Constitution of India envisaged a supreme court with a chief justice and seven judges; leaving it to parliament to increase this number. In formative years, the supreme court met from 10 to 12 in the morning and then 2 to 4 in the afternoon for 28 days in a month.

Central Wing of the Court where the chief justice's courtroom is located
The building is shaped to symbolize scales of justice with its centre-beam being the Central Wing of the building comprising the chief justice s court, the largest of the courtrooms, with two court halls on either side. The Right Wing of the structure has the bar room, the offices of the Attorney General of India and other law officers and the library of the court. The Left Wing has the offices of the court. In all, there are 15 courtrooms in the various wings of the building.
The foundation stone of the supreme court's building was laid on 29 October 1954 by Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first President of India. The main block of the building has been built on a triangular plot of 17 acres and has been designed in an Indo-British style by the chief architect Ganesh Bhikaji Deolalikar, the first Indian to head the Central Public Works Department.It has a 27.6 m (90 ft 7 in) high dome and a spacious colonnaded verandah. The Court moved into the building in 1958. In 1979, two new wings the East Wing and the West Wing were added to the complex. 1994 saw the last extension.