The neutrality of the art and architecture of courtrooms and courthouses hasdominated the public perception in the Indian context. The courtroom design and thevisual artistic elements present within these judicial places have very often been con-sidered to be insignificant to the notions of law and justice that they reflect. As art andarchitecture present certain historical narratives, reflect political allegories and havesignificant impact on the perceptions of their viewers, they have critical socio-politicalramifications. This makes it pertinent to explore them and investigate the paradox oftheir deployment and interpretation in today’s increasingly mediatized world. Throughan ethnographic study of the Supreme Court of India, this paper interprets its art andarchitecture, and, the symbolism and semiotics reflectedthrough them. Arguing againsttheir neutralityand insignificance, the paper demonstrates how theyreflect nationalism,certain ideologiesandpower-spacedynamics.Itfurtherarguesthattheyactasevidenceof political metaphors related to justice, power and democracy. With a conversationbetween law,architectureand semiotics,thepaper investigatesthe historicaland spatialdimensions of its architecture and artistic elements. Mapping the Court’s architecturalelements, I examine how the visual representation of ‘justice as virtue’ finds translationin its design through transfer of certain images, including the image of the ‘scales ofjustice’, into it, while absenting the notion of ‘justice as struggle’—to contemplate onhow legal architecture gives evidence to the vexed relationship between law and justiceand also of the break from the colonial past.

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• Interpreting the Scales of Justice: Architecture,Symbolism and Semiotics of the Supreme Court of India