New Delhi: The Union Cabinet approved a proposal on Tuesday to raise the Supreme Court's strength from 34 to 38 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.
According to Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Supreme Court currently comprises 33 judges, including the Chief Justice of India. A bill will be introduced in the next session of Parliament to increase this strength by four.
Once it is cleared by Parliament, the number of Supreme Court judges will stand at 38, including the CJI, PTI reported.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act 1956, as originally enacted, provided for the maximum number of judges (excluding the chief justice of India) to be 10.
This number was increased to 13 by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges), Amendment Act, 1960, and to 17 by another amendment to the law.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 1986, augmented the strength of the Supreme Court judges from 17 to 25, excluding the CJI. Subsequently, a fresh amendment in 2009 further augmented the strength of top court judges from 25 to 30.
The strength of the Supreme Court of India was last increased from 30 to 33 (excluding the Chief Justice of India) by further amending the original act vide The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2019.