Comparative Perspectives on Legal Information Access in the Allahabad High Court and Supreme Court Libraries

Legal information resources are critical tools that help judges, lawyers and legal researchers perform their roles with precision, power and effectiveness. The statutes are interpreted and judicial precedents and sound legal arguments are analysed and developed. Knowledge centres, law libraries of apex judicial institutions are charged with organising, storing and making available authoritative print and digital law resources. This paper aims to review, in a comparative manner, the legal information resources in the libraries of the Allahabad High Court and the Supreme Court of India. It considers groups of books, journals, and online databases; access, usage and digitisation programmes; and the new role of artificial intelligence in legal research. The results show that although the two libraries have advanced, the Supreme Court Library has a more robust digital infrastructure and greater technological integration. The paper identifies gaps that exist and suggests comparative, user-centred research to improve legal information services in higher courts in India.