Federal Court of India

The Federal Court of India was a judicial body, established in India in 1937 under the provisions of the Government of India Act 1935, with original, appellate and advisory jurisdiction. It functioned until the Supreme Court of India was established in 1950. Although the seat of the Federal Court was at Delhi, however, a separate Federal Court of Pakistan was established in Pakistan at Karachi after the Partition of India. There was a right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London from the Federal Court of India.

The Federal Court had exclusive original jurisdiction in any dispute between the Central Government and the Provinces. Initially, it was empowered to hear appeals from the High Courts of the provinces in the cases which involved the interpretation of any Section of the Government of India Act, 1935. From 5 January 1948 it was also empowered to hear appeals in those cases, which did not involve any interpretation of the Government of India Act, 1935.^[1]

The Federal Court came into being on 1 October 1937. The seat of the court was the Chamber of Princes in the Parliament building in Delhi. It began with a Chief Justice and two puisne judges. The first Chief Justice was Sir Maurice Gwyer and the other two judges were Sir Shah Muhammad Sulaiman and M. R. Jayakar. It functioned until the establishment of the Supreme Court of India on 28 January 1950, two days after India was declared a republic.

• ^‡ – Date of resignation
• ^# – On 14 August 1947 Federal Court partitioned into the federal courts of India and Pakistan

• History of the Indian Subcontinent
  • History of the Republic of India
    • Supreme Court of India
    • Chief Justice of India
    • Judges of the Supreme Court of India
    • National Judicial Appointments Commission
    • Judicial activism in India
  • History of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
    • Supreme Court of Pakistan (Judicial history)
    • Chief Justice of Pakistan
    • Justices of the Supreme Court of Pakistan
    • Supreme Court Bar Association
    • Judicial activism (Lawyers' movement)

• Pylee, M.V. (1996). The Federal Court Of India, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, ISBN 978-81-259-0223-2

• Federal Court (Enlargement of Jurisdiction) Act, 1947