Supreme Court to get five more judges

A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, gave its nod to a proposal to increase the number of judges in the apex court, including the Chief Justice to 31. “The increase in the number of judges will allow Supreme Court to function more efficiently and effectively towards attaining the ultimate goal of rendering speedy justice to litigants,” an official spokesperson said.

A bill to amend the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, would be introduced in Parliament soon, she said.

In 1986, the number of judges in the Supreme Court was increased from 18 to 25 plus the Chief Justice. Contending that there has been a rise in the “feeder cadre”, that is the number of judges proportionate to each high court has gone up, this increase was all the more necessitated.

According to the latest report from the Supreme Court, based on figures by Ministry of Law, Department of Justice, there were about 47,000 cases pending before the apex court till January this year. The Government had earlier informed Parliament that the pendency of cases in the apex court had increased by about 25 per cent since 2006.