List of Chief Justice of Supreme Court

Name	Tenure
	From	To
Hiralal J. Kania	26.01.1950	26.11.1951
M. Patanjali Shastri	07.11.1951	03.01.1954
Mehar Chand Mahajan	04.11.1954	22.12.1954

Public Interest Litigation (PIL)

• Any member of the public can now initiate a proceeding on behalf of the aggrieved person ( esp. if the person is too poor or unable to move the court on his or her own ) in either the High Court or the Supreme Court for enforcement of constitutional rights.

Supreme Court of India

• The Supreme Court of India stands at the apex of the judicial system of India.
• It consists of Chief Justice & 30 other judges.

Municipalities

• The Part IX A of the Constitution of India gives a constitutional foundation to the local self government units in urban area.
• Most provisions for municipalities are similar to those written in Part IX, i.e. Structure, Reservation of Seats, Functions, Sources of Information etc.

Panchayati Raj

Ensures the direct participation of people at the grass root level.

In 1956, the National Development Council appointed a committee under Balwant Rai Mehta, which submitted its report in 1957 in which it recommended :

• A 3 – tier structure consisting of Zila Parishad at the District Level, Panchayat Samiti at the Block Level and Gram Panchayat at the Village Level.
• Genuine transfer of power & responsibility to these institutions.
• Adequate resources to them.
• All social & economic development programs channelized through these.

Special Position of Jammu & Kashmir

Under Part XXI of the Constitution of India, which deals with “Temporary, Transitional and Special provisions”, the State of Jammu and Kashmir has been accorded special status under Article 370. Even though included in 1st Schedule as 15th state, all the provisions of the Constitution which are applicable to other states are not applicable to J&K. For example, till 1965, J&K had a Sadr-e-Riyasat for Governor and Prime Minister in place of Chief Minister.