ABOUT US

The Supreme Court Judges Library, which was established in the year 1937 as Federal Court Library, is one of the largest Law Library in Asia. It contains significant legal literature to support the needs of the Hon’ble Courts and Judges.

The Supreme Court Library is a state-of-the-art Library containing more than 3,80,000 legal documents which manifest in the form of books, monographs, Encyclopedic Sets of law (both Indian and Foreign), Law Reports, Statutes, Commission/Committee Reports, State Legislation, Parliamentary Debates, other Legislative materials and e-Resources in the form of Online Reports and CD-ROM Legal databases. Complete documentation of Acts, Amendments (both Central and States), Rules, Regulations, Bye-laws, Schemes and Notifications is being done by the Library so that the same may be made available expeditiously to the Hon’ble Courts and the Hon’ble Judges at the time of requirement. The Judges Library subscribes to 131 journals, including 107 Indian and 24 foreign publications, 19 newspapers, and 8 magazines.

Judges Library is a network of Libraries. Main Library is spread over the four floors (Ground +3) of the A Block, Additional Building Complex and was made functional by Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India Dr. D. Y. Chandrachud on 24th April 2023.

Supreme Court Judges Library is working on all the 365 days except 03 National Holidays, Holi and Diwali festival. It is a network of libraries containing 34 Residential Libraries and 14 Court Room Libraries and 3 Digital Court Libraries for 3 paperless Courts. Two of the Library staff members are deployed in each Court to provide the cited books to Hon’ble Judges at the time of citations in the Court Rooms. Telephonic requisitions from the residential office of the Hon’ble Judges are catered by sending the required information / documents to the residential office. Library is managed by Professional Librarians and other supporting staff.

The second floor of the new library also houses Soli Sorabjee’s Bibliotheca, some books from the personal collection of Late Mr. Soli Sorabjee, former Attorney General and Constitutional Expert, which was given by his family to the Judges library. This bibliotheca was made functional by unveiling the portrait of late Mr. Soli Sorabjee by Hon’ble Chief Justice of India on 24th April 2023.

SERVICES OFFERED BY THE LIBRARY

• Lending Service
• Legal Research
• Reference Service
• Inter Library Loan
• Digital Current Content Services
• E-Newspaper Clippings

IN-HOUSE DATABASES

In order to provide pinpointed information expeditiously to the Hon’ble Courts and the Hon’ble Judges at the time of requirement, Judges Library has developed  many indigenous tools to retrieve the required information immediately. Many retrieval tools have been designed in the form of “In-house Databases” customized according to specific information requirements of the Hon’ble Courts and Hon’ble Judges. Important In-house databases developed by the Library are :

• SUPLIS: Supreme Court Case laws can be retrieved through Citation, Famous/Popular Name, Petitioner/ Respondent name or case number.
• SUPLIB: References of Articles on any legal topic can be retrieved.
• LEGIS: Legislative History of any Central Act can be ascertained.
• EQUVALENT CITATION TABLE: Equivalent Citations in five Law Reports (SCR, SCC, AIR (SC), JT and Scale) publishing Supreme Court Judgments can be obtained.
• OPAC : Online Catalogue

ON GOING PROJECTS

Vidhi Gyan Sampada is an ambitious and transformative project envisioned by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud and the Hon’ble Judges of the Library Committee, Supreme Court of India. The work of the project is carried on by the Judges Library, Supreme Court of India and is likely to be launched in early 2024.

This innovative platform seeks to transform legal research and education by providing open access to an extensive repository of legal knowledge. This initiative aims to establish a cutting-edge Legal Knowledge Portal, offering comprehensive access to legislative history, constitutional insights, committee reports, scholarly articles, and current legal resources. It aspires to serve as an invaluable resource for young lawyers, students, legal scholars, and the public, fostering legal literacy, research, and awareness.

1. Judges Library Legal Research Wing is created in 2021 for specialized research which covers constitutional historical descriptive and comparative Legal Analysis and Research for “Vidhi Gyan Sampada Portal”.Some Comprehensive databases are in the process of development under the umbrella of “Vidhi Gyan Smapada” and soon will be available to the users for use through Remote Access.
   1. Legislative History Repository of Central / State Acts including legislative History of amendments & related documents.
   2. Constitutional Database : Article -wise detailed reference material including Amendments, Case Law reference & other academic articles.
   3. Commission and Committee Reports : Including Law Commission Reports and Parliamentary Committee Reports and Reports of the special Committees constituted time to time on various legal issues.
   4. Digital Current Content is compiled on monthly basis from foreign law journals/ reviews both open access source and subscribed sources. Two separate lists are being prepared one with hyperlinks to articles from the open source law journals/ reviews and the other is the list with the details of the articles which as per the requirement are scanned and sent to the individual Hon’ble Judge.
   5. Legal News Clippings: Apart from the regular library services being provided to the Hon’ble Judges and the Courts, the Judges library also provides Legal News Clippings to the Hon’ble Judges, in electronic format with an index and hyperlinks to the news by 7:30 am without fail on daily basis. A database of legal news clippings is also created.
2. Library Digitization Project – The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India was pleased to approve the purchase of One Bookeye 5 publication scanner for the library. With the arrival of the said scanner on 24 July 2023, a digital repository is being developed. Presently, the legislation (both Central & State) required for Vidhi Sampada are being scanned. Some Rare Books have been identify those will be scanned and will be made available in Vidhi Gyan Sampada portal.
3. Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) –The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and the Hon’ble Judges of the Library Committee were pleased to approve the installation of RFID system in the Judges Library. The RFID system will be soon installed in the library.
4. Remote Access – Remote Access will be provided to the Hon’ble Judges, Law Clerks, Ld. Secretary General and Registrars and Library Staff to access the subscribed databases like e-news clippings, other research and reference materials.

Upcoming Projects

Databases which will be soon developed are:

1. Comprehensive database of Hon’ble Judges of Supreme Court– this will have their profile, their judgments during their tenure at Supreme Court, news items of important judgments delivered by them.
2. Subject-wise Database – research will begin for collecting all the relevant material for preparing subject guides.
3. Comprehensive Database of Constitution Bench Judgments- List is already been prepared of the Constitution Bench judgments from 1950 till date which is more than 2000 judgments.

Others Links

• Journal Holdings
• Current Journals
• Equivalent citations
• Union Catalogue of Periodicals
• Related Links

Contact Details

For Specific queries please Contact the following persons:

Sr. No.	Name & Designation	Section	Phone No.
1.	Mr. Ashok Kumar Librarian	Periodical Section	23116453
2.	Mr. Vinod Kumar Librarian or Ms. Rajshree Jalal, Asstt. Librarian	Reference Section	23116426
3.	Mr. Mazhar Khan Librarian	Legislation Section	23116279 / 23116446
4.	Mr. B.B. Khare Librarian	Information Management Section	23116288 / 23116428
5.	Mr. Vijay Kumar Librarian	Court Management Section	23116282
6.	Mr. B.A. Rao Librarian	Legal Research Section	23116280
7.	Ms. Shakti Mishra Librarian	Acquisition Section	23116289
8.	Ms. Versha Shah Librarian	Circulation Section	23116281 / 23116286