Supreme Court judgments have always been important for the Civil Services Exam conducted by UPSC. The prelims or mains both the exam have questions based on the Supreme Court Judgments. These judgments are often become a benchmark for other cases and verdicts. They also become a beacon of inspiration for the future policies and legislations that are necessary for the governance of country. In this scenario the knowledge of these judgments become quite essential for a Civil Services Aspirants. The weight age of the questions based on these judgments in Civil Services Prelims Exam has increased in the past few years because of a surge in the verdicts recently. These judgments also form a good chunk of Current Affairs as most of these cases are related to polity, economy and environment related issues. These judgments also cast impact on societal issues and problems such as cases related to environment has huge impact on tribes or inhabitants living in the forest or mineral belts. In the same way Vishakha or Nirbhaya case affected the policies and laws related to gender discrimination and violence. Most of the times these judgments give rise to a series of constitutional amendments and laws that are beneficial for the entire society or a particular section of the society.

Before moving to the strategy to prepare such judgments for the exam it is important to have a brief knowledge of such judgments. In India’s common law system, judgments are critical for setting a precedent that serves as the foundation for delivering justice. The Delhi lieutenant governor and Section 377 verdicts will undoubtedly go down in history as landmark judgments and influence several future cases. Data shows that Supreme Court judgments are a complex web—70% of all judgments have been cited by at least one other judgment. Within this network, the simplest way to assess importance is to look at how many times a judgment has been cited by other Supreme Court judgments. There are a series of judgments that are often cited by upper courts and lower courts in their delivery of judgments. Menaka Gandhi Case is perhaps one among many cases that has been cited at many instances during the judgments of cases. Not only judgments but the legislations and the discussions during passage of  bills also quote these judgments. One of the most popular cases is Keshawanand Bharti Case that is often quoted during such proceedings and pleadings.

Now lets move to the most important question that how to prepare these judgments and what resources and books need to be referred to keep a close vigil on these judgments. There are plenty of judgments given by Supreme Court so which of the cases should be given the priority and what should be the strategy to form notes out of these. The judgments given by apex courts are quite lengthy and obviously not everything has to be read from these judgments from exam point of view. The following resources could be referred for covering these judgments:

1. News Paper Like The Hindu and Indian Express
2. PIB
3. Poity book by Laxmikant
4. India Year Book
5. GS Score Website

The students should make notes on regular basis by referring to these sources but it has been found that sometimes students have tendency to skip or leave few important things. Also notes made with the help of these resources have dearth of information that may be crucial for the exam.

To save your precious time and provide coverage of all important facts and information GS Score has come with a fact file that comprise of compilation of all important judgments delivered by Supreme Court. Prelims Sampoorna Fact File on Important Judgments have been compiled in a way that it fulfills all needs related to your prelims exam and also aide to your revision process during exam. The compilation has been prepared by a team of scholars having a huge experience in designing such exam specific compilations. The compilation can be downloaded for free from GS Score website