By IANS
New Delhi : Litigants can now hope for quicker resolution of their cases with the Indian government conceding the demand of the Supreme Court to increase the number of judges from 25 to 30, apart from the chief justice.
“The government is going to move an amendment to the Supreme Court (number of Judges) Act, 1956 in the winter session of parliament,” said Principal Director General (Media and Communications) Dipak Sandhu after a meeting of the cabinet of ministers here.
“The proposed amendment would augment the strength of the Supreme Court judges, excluding the Chief justice of India from 25 to 30,” she said.
In 1986 the government had amended the act to increase the number of Supreme Court judges from 17 plus one to 25 plus one.
The current strength of 25 plus one was fixed in 1987. But even the current strength is not fully filled, with three vacancies existing at the moment, said sources in the law and justice ministry.
In the early years the apex court functioned with only seven judges and all would sit together to hear each case.
Noticing the backlog of cases in 1956, the government brought in the Supreme Court (number of judges) Act, 1956 and increased the number of judges from 8 to 11. In 1978, four more judges were added.