At which of the following places for the first time the bench of the Supreme Court of India sat outside Delhi ?

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 1:

The first time a bench of the Supreme Court of India sat outside its permanent seat in New Delhi was in **Hyderabad**. This event is a significant, yet often overlooked, part of the Supreme Court's history and its evolving efforts to ensure accessibility to justice, particularly for citizens living far from the national capital.

The Constitution of India, under Article 130, stipulates that the Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or in such other place or places as the Chief Justice of India may, with the approval of the President, appoint. While the primary seat remains in Delhi, allowing for sittings elsewhere is intended to decentralize judicial proceedings and reduce the immense travel burden on litigants, lawyers, and witnesses from distant parts of the country.

The sitting in Hyderabad occurred in 1950, shortly after the Supreme Court's inauguration on January 28, 1950. The purpose of this initial sitting in the then-capital of the state of Hyderabad (now capital of Telangana) was to facilitate judicial proceedings related to the transitional period of the merger of the former princely state into the Indian Union. This decision reflected the early intent of the judicial leadership to make the highest court geographically accessible when critical regional matters demanded it, setting a precedent for future discussions about establishing permanent circuit benches outside Delhi.

The incorrect option is 2:
Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir, was not the location for the Supreme Court's first sitting outside Delhi. While the matter of a bench in Srinagar has often been raised, particularly to address the unique constitutional and geographical challenges faced by the region, the historical record confirms that Hyderabad was the site of the inaugural sitting away from the capital in 1950. Any sittings in Srinagar, or proposals for them, would have occurred much later than the initial sittings related to the integration of Hyderabad. Furthermore, the Supreme Court rarely sits outside Delhi, making its initial historical moves unique and important milestones.

The incorrect option is 3:
Gwalior, a city in Madhya Pradesh, is incorrect as the location for the first Supreme Court sitting outside Delhi. While Gwalior is a judicial center with a bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court, it does not hold the distinction of hosting the first Supreme Court bench outside the capital. The Supreme Court's rare decision to convene elsewhere has always been tied to matters of national significance or exceptional circumstances, which Gwalior did not historically present immediately following the Constitution's commencement.

The incorrect option is 4:
Bhopal, the capital of Madhya Pradesh, is also not the correct answer. Similar to Gwalior, Bhopal does not feature in the historical accounts as the location where the Supreme Court first exercised its constitutional power under Article 130 to sit outside New Delhi. The initial focus of the Supreme Court benches outside Delhi was on resolving key jurisdictional issues arising from the political integration of states, a situation most acutely relevant to Hyderabad at that precise moment in 1950, rather than Bhopal. The movement of the highest court is an extraordinary constitutional measure, and Hyderabad's early post-independence status made it the historically correct choice.