LS Passes Bill To Increase Strength Of Judges In SC

The Lok Sabha has passed the Supreme Court (Number of Judges), Amendment Bill, 2019 to increase the strength of judges in the Apex Court to 33 from the present 30, excluding the CJI.

The bill was introduced after CJI Ranjan Gogoi, requested the Prime Minister to consider the same on account of huge pendency of cases in the institution. The CJI was recently quoted saying "In India, we have a little over one thousand 50-year-old cases and above two lakh 25-year-old cases" at the Gauhati High Court where he laid the foundation stone of its auditorium.

The Supreme Court had been functioning at its full strength of 30 judges as per Article 124 of the Indian Constitution and this bill proposes to amend the same to raise the strength to 33.

The Bill to increase 10% seats was passed with a majority in the Upper House and shall now be tabled before the Rajya Sabha.