Article 124 and the Supreme Court of India: from a Chief Justice and 7 puisne Judges to a strength of 34

Background

The Supreme Court of India is the apex judicial body under the Constitution of India, and Article 124 of the Constitution states that “There shall be a Supreme Court of India.” The Supreme Court came into existence on 26 January 1950 with the coming into force of the Constitution. On 28 January 1950, two days after India became a Sovereign Democratic Republic, the Supreme Court was inaugurated, in the Chamber of Princes in the old Parliament building where the Federal Court of India sat for 12 years from 1937 to 1950. The Court initially functioned from the old Parliament House and moved to the present building located on Tilak Marg, New Delhi in 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. In the early years all the Judges sat together to hear cases; today they sit in Benches of two and three and come together in larger Benches of 5 and more, a Constitution Bench, to decide conflicting decisions between benches or substantial questions concerning the interpretation of the Constitution. The proceedings of the Supreme Court are conducted in English, and the practice and procedure of the Registry on the judicial side is regulated by the Supreme Court Rules, 2013.