Centre Approves Proposal To Increase Strength Of Supreme Court Judges From 33 To 37

The Centre on Tuesday approved a proposal to increase the sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court of India from 33 to 37, excluding the Chief Justice of India, in a move aimed at improving judicial capacity and expediting the disposal of cases.

The decision was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Narendra Modi, nearly six years after the last increase in the court’s strength.

The government said the expansion is intended to address mounting pendency, with over 92,000 cases currently awaiting adjudication before the apex court.

To give effect to the proposal, the Cabinet cleared the introduction of The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026 in Parliament.

The Bill seeks to amend The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act,

1956, enabling an increase in the number of judges to meet the growing demands on the judicial system.

Under Article 124(1) of the Constitution, the Supreme Court consists of a Chief Justice of India and such number of other judges as Parliament may determine by law.

This has allowed successive governments to revise the court’s strength periodically in response to rising caseloads.

When the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act was enacted in 1956, the sanctioned strength was fixed at 10 judges apart from the Chief Justice. It was raised to 13 in 1960 and further to 17 in 1977.

However, the working strength effectively remained limited to 15 until 1979, when the cap was lifted following a request from the then Chief Justice.

Subsequent expansions followed over the decades, with the sanctioned strength increased to 25 in 1986 and to 30 in 2008.

The most recent revision came in 2019, when Parliament approved an increase from 30 to 33 judges, excluding the Chief Justice of India.