Ancillary Powers of the Supreme Court
Official heading: “Ancillary powers of the Supreme Court”
- Source edition
- The Constitution of India (as on 1 May 2026)
- Source locator
- Part V, Article 140, printed pages 64–65
- Last human source-link check
- Not yet checked
- Last human legal review
- Not yet reviewed
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1. In One Sentence
Article 140 empowers Parliament to confer supplemental and ancillary powers on the Supreme Court by law to enable the Court to effectively exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon it.
2. What It Means in Everyday Language
Article 140 serves as an enabling provision allowing Parliament to equip the Supreme Court with all necessary ancillary, incidental, and supplemental powers.
Parliament may by law make provision for conferring upon the Supreme Court such supplemental powers not inconsistent with any of the provisions of the Constitution as may appear necessary or desirable.
The purpose is to enable the Court more effectively to exercise the jurisdiction conferred upon it by or under the Constitution.
This provision ensures that as novel legal challenges emerge, Parliament can provide procedural and enforcement machinery supporting apex court operations.
Crucially, any supplemental powers conferred under this article must NOT be inconsistent with any constitutional provision.
3. Practical Illustrative Example
Parliament passes legislation conferring specific electronic discovery and cross-border digital evidence preservation powers on the Supreme Court.
4. Important Limits, Qualifications & Exceptions
Article 140 allows statutory enhancement of Supreme Court operational efficacy.
- Parliamentary authority to confer supplemental powers.
- Must be consistent with the Constitution.
- Aims to enhance the effective exercise of existing constitutional jurisdiction.
5. Operative Constitutional Text
6. Sources & Historical Assembly Deliberations
Assembly quotations are withheld until wording, dates, and attribution have been checked against the primary record.
- •Government of India (Legislative Department, Ministry of Law and Justice) • Part V, Article 140, printed pages 64–65 • Human source-link check pending
Primary PDF accessed and transcribed with AI assistance on 14 October 2026. Formatting and amendment annotation markers are omitted; operative wording is retained. This is not human legal review. Later amendments and commencement notifications have not been comprehensively checked.