President promulgates Ordinance to increase Supreme Court judge strength to 38

President Droupadi Murmu has promulgated an Ordinance increasing the sanctioned strength of judges in the Supreme Court from 33 to 37, excluding the Chief Justice of India.

The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Ordinance, 2026 was notified in the Gazette of India on May 16. It amends Section 2 of the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 by substituting the word “thirty-three” with “thirty-seven”.

The amendment means that the Supreme Court can now have a Chief Justice of India and 37 other judges, taking the total number to 38 judges. Until now, the Court had a sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the Chief Justice of India.

The Ordinance was issued under Article 123 of the Constitution, which empowers the President to promulgate ordinances when Parliament is not in session.

The Ordinance has been issued at a time when the Supreme Court continues to deal with a large pendency of cases.

The increase in judge strength is expected to create four additional posts in the top court. However, appointments to these posts will still have to be made through the collegium process.

On May 5, the Union Cabinet had approved a proposal to increase the strength of the Supreme Court from 34 to 38 judges.

When the Supreme Court was created in 1950, it had only eight judges, including the CJI.

As per Article 124 (1) in Constitution of India:

“There shall be a Supreme Court of India consisting of a Chief Justice of India and, until Parliament by law prescribes a larger number, of not more than seven other Judges…”.

The number of judges for the top court was first increased in 1956 to 11, including the CJI.

It was later increased to 14 in 1960 and 18 in 1977.

However, it remained restricted to 15 judges by the Cabinet till the end of 1979, when the restriction was withdrawn at the request of the then CJI.

Later, the judge strength was increased from 18 to 26 in 1986. In 2009, the number was increased from 26 to 31.

The judge strength was last increased from 31 to 34 in 2019.

[Read Ordinance]