Bill Introduced In The Lok Sabha To Increase Number Of Supreme Court Judges In Order To Clear Pending Cases

A bill to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court from 30 to 33 has been introduced in Lok Sabha.

The move has come at a time when it is known that nearly 60,000 cases are pending in the Supreme Court and days after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase the number of Supreme Court judges.

Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi had written to the PM recently that due to a paucity of judges, it had become impossible to set up the required number of constitution benches to decide important cases.

According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court has constantly been on the rise due to comparatively higher rate of institution of cases.

According to the text of the Bill, it is impossible for the Chief Justice of India to constitute five-judge benches on a regular basis to hear cases involving substantial questions of law relating to interpretation of the Constitution.

Doing so would result in constituting less number of Division Benches which would lead to delay in hearing of other civil and criminal matters, as per the text of the Bill.

The feeder cadre of chief justices and judges of the high courts have increased from 906 to 1,079 and new High Courts have also been established in the previous years.