India’s Supreme Court Gets Bigger

There are two reasons the government decided to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court of India by 10 percent to 33, plus the Chief Justice of India.

Higher pendency—a total 58,669 cases are pending in the Supreme Court as of June 1, 2019 data.

More cases—with an increase in the number of chief justices and judges across high courts from 906 to 1,079, and the increase in the number of high courts too, there has been a surge in the disposal of cases at the high court level leading to larger number of appeals to the Supreme Court.

With the current number of judges at 30, it was tough for the Chief Justice of India to constitute five-judge benches to hear cases involving substantial matters of law without reducing the number of division benches (of two or more judges) to hear civil and criminal matters.

It’s for these reasons the Parliament passed a bill, approved thereafter by the President of India Ram Nath Kovind, to increase the total strength of the Supreme Court.

But just more judges is not enough, say senior lawyers practicing in the apex court.

The increase in judges to handle arrears is not a solution at all when the court has shown disinclination to embrace technology and improve the case management system in the courts, Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan told BloombergQuint. The court, according to him, should take steps to bring in professionals to ensure the management of listing of cases and separate it from the adjudicatory role of the court. Eventually, it is important that the conduct of individual judges with reference to the disposal of cases must be at the highest standard for there to be slightest dent to the problem of arrears, he said.

On the increase in the strength, Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde agrees the workload on judges warrants the move but notes that it is a valid concern that such a move may affect the quality of the top court which is meant to function as a constitutional court.

‘’Supreme Court of 34 judges which means in total there will be 17 benches which is a dilution of the solemncy with which the Supreme Court is treated. Right now it almost seems like a National Court of Appeals and less of a constitutional court,” Hegde to BloombergQuint. “Such a large number benches will mean there are more chances of conflicting judgments within the court which might make the quality suffer.’’

The Constitution of India grants the power to the Parliament to increase the strength of the top court from time to time. The top court started in 1950 with a total strength of 8 judges including the Chief Justice of India, which increased to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in 1978 and 26 in 1986. The last increase in strength came in the year 2009 when the number of judges were increased to 31 in 2009.

The top court currently has zero vacancies with the last appointments being of Justices BR Gavai, Surya Kant, Aniruddh Bose and AS Bopanna. Now there will be three more vacancies to fill.