Explanation:

Against the backdrop of rising cases in the Supreme Court, the Union Cabinet approved increasing the number of judges in the Supreme court from the present 31 to 34, including the Chief Justice of India. Once the bill to increase the number of judges gets parliamentary nod, the number of judges would go up to 34, including the CJI. At present, the Supreme Court consists of thirty-one judges (one chief justice and thirty other judges). In February 2009, the centre notified an increase in the number of Supreme Court judges from twenty-six to thirty-one, including the Chief Justice of India. This followed the enactment of the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2008. Originally, the strength of the Supreme Court was fixed at eight (one chief justice and seven other judges). The Parliament has increased this number of other judges progressively to ten in 1956, to thirteen in 1960, to seventeen in 1977 and to twenty-five in 1986.