India’s independence from British Rule in 1947 was perhaps one of the most significant events of the last century in evolution of legal system in the country. India inherited a liberal legal ideology from the British Legal System. The constituent Assembly decided to retain and adopt, for the Republic, the basics of the pre-independence judicial system.

The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution in their wisdom, created the Supreme Court of India and the high courts as constitutional courts, with extensive powers of judicial review, to enforce constitutional rights and fundamental rights and also to safeguard rights flowing from various statues or laws. The Supreme Court of India succeeded to the jurisdiction of Federal Court and the Judicial Committee. Mr. M.C. Setalvad, the first Attorney General of India at the inaugural sitting of the Supreme Court of India on 28th January, 1950 in his address, referring to the extent and nature of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India said ‘the jurisdiction and powers of this Court, in their nature and extent, are wider than those exercised by the highest Court of any country in the Commonwealth or by the Supreme Court of the United States’. He expressed the hope that ‘this Court will play a great and singular role and establish itself in the consciousness of the Indian people’.

In this book we have briefly covered the historical perspectives of the legal and judicial systems prevailed during the period between 1600 and 1949 (from the establishment of the East India Company under the Crown’s Charter of 1600 till the enactment of the Abolition of the Privy Council Jurisdiction Act, 1949 which came into force on 10th October, 1949), including evolution of the concept of the separation of powers and the recognition of legal profession in India.

To have better outlook and understanding of the legal implications/ intricacies of law, it is important that the students pursuing the law course should know the origin and evaluation of the legal systems. Thus, this topic is rightly included in the syllabus. This book provides a short cut to the students of the 5 year law degree course to enable them to get a broad understanding of the topics that would be covered under the revised syllabus with effect from the academic year 2020.