Article 124 and the growth of the Supreme Court of India from eight Judges to thirty-four

Background

Article 124 of the Constitution states that there shall be a Supreme Court of India, and the Court is the apex judicial body under the Constitution. The Supreme Court came into existence on 26 January 1950 with the coming into force of the Constitution, and it was inaugurated on 28 January 1950 in the Chamber of Princes in the old Parliament building. The Federal Court of India had sat in that same Chamber of Princes for 12 years, from 1937 to 1950. Harilal J. Kania was the first Chief Justice of India and attended the inaugural proceedings along with the Judges of the Federal Court. The Court functioned from the old Parliament House until it moved to the present building on Tilak Marg, New Delhi, which the first President of India, Dr Rajendra Prasad, inaugurated on 4 August 1958. The original Constitution of 1950 envisaged a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and 7 puisne Judges, leaving it to Parliament to increase this number. Parliament increased the number of Judges from 8 in 1950 to 11 in 1956, 14 in 1960, 18 in 1978, 26 in 1986, 31 in 2009 and 34 in 2019, which is the current strength. Proceedings of the Supreme Court are conducted in English, and the practice and procedure of working of the Registry on the judicial side is regulated by the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 and the Handbook on Practice and Procedure and Office Procedure.