Why is Article 124 in the News? | Supreme Court Judges | By Ankit Singh | StudyIQ IAS English

0:00 Hello everyone.

0:01 I'm Ankit and you're watching StudyIQIAS English.

0:04 In our today's video, we'll try to understand why is Article 124 in news

0:08 currently and all that credit goes to the Union Cabinet because

0:12 yesterday the Union Cabinet gave its approval to increase the sanctioned

0:16 strength of the judges in the Supreme Court of India, which presently is 34.

0:22 Now, this number of 34 judges in the Supreme

0:24 Court includes the Chief Justice of India.

0:26 Now, the government is proposing to increase

0:28 the sanctioned strength from 34 to 38.

0:31 That is an increase will happen of four number of judges.

0:34 Now, to bring this reform, the government plans to bring a bill in the next

0:38 session of the Parliament and after passage of this bill,

0:41 the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court judges would increase by four.

0:44 So, this topic becomes very important

0:46 from our exam's perspective and as a result,

0:48 we're going to understand what is the process following which you can

0:51 increase the size of the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court judges.

0:55 And before ending our today's discussion,

0:58 we'll also try to understand what are the qualifications for a person

1:02 to be appointed as a judge of the Supreme Court, right?

1:05 Now, as this topic is important,

1:07 you can go to our Telegram channel called as ATS Live

1:10 to download the notes which I will be using in the today's session.

1:13 And in case you're downloading the notes,

1:15 please don't forget to subscribe to the channel

1:16 as well for future such updates, okay?

1:19 Now, let us start by understanding or by taking

1:22 at a look to the Constitution of India.

1:25 What does Constitution of India says about this process?

1:28 For that, we need to refer to Article 124 of the Indian Constitution.

1:32 This article talks about establishment and constitution of the Supreme Court.

1:37 It says that there shall be a Supreme Court of India which would consist

1:41 of a Chief Justice of India and until

1:44 Parliament by law prescribes a larger number,

1:48 the sanctioned strength of the judges

1:49 of the Supreme Court would be seven other judges.

1:52 So, originally as per Article 124 (1) of the Indian Constitution,

1:57 the strength of Supreme Court included a Chief Justice of India.

2:00 In addition to that, there would be seven other judges in the Supreme Court.

2:04 But here, if you follow this article,

2:07 it also states that the Parliament has the power by passing

2:11 a law to prescribe a larger number of judges and as a result,

2:14 this strength has been increased multiple times

2:17 through an act passed in the Indian Parliament.

2:20 Now, for the first time,

2:21 this Parliament of India in 1956 enacted the Supreme Court number

2:27 of judges act and this act said as against the original constitution,

2:31 the number of maximum number of judges in the Supreme

2:35 Court would go from seven to 10 number of judges.

2:38 So, going forward, whenever I talk about a number of judge,

2:41 this would automatically exclude the Chief Justice of India

2:45 because originally the Constitution of India says that the Supreme

2:48 Court would consist of one Chief Justice and other

2:52 number of judges as Parliament by law prescribes.

2:55 So, this law stated that in Indian Supreme Court of India,

3:00 there would be a Chief Justice of India and 10 other judges.

3:03 This was in 1956.

3:05 Now, in the decades of 1960s and 70s,

3:08 this act was amended again twice by the Indian Parliament.

3:12 First, it was done in 1916 when the sanctioned strength of judges include was

3:16 increased from 10 to 13 excluding the Chief Justice of India and again in 1977,

3:22 the sanctioned strength increased from 13

3:24 to 17 excluding the Chief Justice of India.

3:27 But there was a working restriction imposed on Supreme Court of India.

3:30 Then government imposed that the working strength

3:33 of the Supreme Court up till 1979 would consist

3:37 of 15 judges and only after a request was

3:41 made by then Chief Justice of India in 1979,

3:44 the government allowed the Supreme Court to function

3:47 on its sanctioned strength of 17 other judges, right?

3:52 Now, let us try to understand what happened

3:54 in the decades of 1980s and after that.

3:58 Now, in 1986 particularly, the original act of the Parliament,

4:02 that is the Judges the Supreme Court Number of Judges Act of 1956 was amended

4:07 again to increase the sanctioned strength of judges

4:10 in the Supreme Court from 17 to 25.

4:12 Again, excluding the Chief Justice of India.

4:15 And subsequently in 2008 also,

4:17 this act was again amended by the Parliament by increasing

4:21 the strength of Supreme Court judges from 25 to 30,

4:25 again excluding the Chief Justice of India.

4:27 And for the last time this number was increased,

4:30 it happened in 2019 when the Parliament of India again amended the original

4:35 1956 Act to provide for increase in strength from 30 to 33 judges,

4:41 again excluding the Chief Justice of India.

4:44 So, the last amendment which was done happened more than 6 years ago in 2019,

4:50 and hence it brings my attention to the fact why now in 2026

4:55 there is or there will be an increase in number of judges.

4:58 There must be some reason, right?

4:59 And there is a very good reason behind it.

5:01 Why the government has approved this increase

5:04 in number of strength after a 6-year gap?

5:07 Now, I need to understand for a past

5:08 few years the persistent problem that the Indian judiciary,

5:12 including the Supreme Court of India,

5:14 is facing is increasing in the pendency of cases.

5:18 I don't know how many of you have seen a very popular

5:20 Hindi movie called as Damini where Sunny Deol's character in that movie,

5:24 who's a lawyer, makes a dialogue,

5:26 "Tariq pe tariq, tariq pe tariq." This dialogue actually

5:29 became a symbol of what was wrong with Indian judiciary,

5:32 that is increase in number of pendency of cases.

5:35 And to solve this pendency of cases, particularly with respect to Supreme Court,

5:39 the government is now allowing for appointment of four additional judges,

5:44 which will help the Supreme Court to tide over this crisis of pendency,

5:48 which is playing the court specially since COVID-19 pandemic.

5:52 Because during COVID-19 pandemic,

5:54 e-filing or online filing of cases was allowed and this has increased the number

5:59 of inflow of cases which are now been filed in the Supreme Court of India.

6:03 Presently, the Supreme Court of India has pendency

6:05 of more than 92,000 cases and if left unattended,

6:09 this number in very near future might also increase beyond the figure of 1 lakh.

6:14 Now, why am I saying this number might increase over 1 lakh in near future?

6:19 There is a very good possibility because as we are entering into summer months,

6:23 the Supreme Court would go into vacation and only limited number

6:27 of benches called as vacation benches would function at this time.

6:31 So, naturally, cases would keep coming on in the Supreme Court,

6:34 but the ability of the Supreme Court

6:36 to dispose of these cases will be somewhat not as good as it would have been

6:41 in normal times because of vacation of judges, right?

6:44 So, to allow for that, the government is now

6:46 planning to increase the number of judges by four

6:49 from 34 including the Chief Justice of India

6:52 to 38 again including the Chief Justice of India.

6:55 So, to summarize this discussion,

6:57 the Article 124 of the Indian Constitution originally provided

7:00 for a Chief Justice and seven other judges of Supreme Court.

7:04 But, it also added a fact that a parliament

7:07 by a law can prescribe for larger amount of judges and therefore,

7:11 parliament in 1956 passed this law,

7:14 which has been amended multiple number of times to increase

7:17 the strength of the Supreme Court from time to time, right?

7:21 Before we move on to a practice question,

7:23 there is also other facts that we need to understand.

7:28 [snorts] First of all, what happens now?

7:29 After this act is amended again by the parliament in the next session,

7:33 the Supreme Court collegium would start recommending the names

7:36 of judges which the president needs to appoint, right?

7:39 Because the process of appointment,

7:41 which again is regulated by article 124 of the Constitution,

7:44 says that the president can make the appointment,

7:47 but only after the consultation with the senior judges of Supreme Court,

7:51 which by the way of convention means the Supreme Court collegium,

7:55 which presently includes the Chief Justice of India and four

7:58 other senior judges of the Supreme Court of India.

8:01 Right?

8:02 Now, who all are able or who all are qualified to become a Supreme Court judge?

8:09 This also is talked about in the article 124 of the Constitution.

8:14 As per article 124 of the Constitution,

8:16 a person who will be appointed by the president

8:19 as a judge of the Supreme Court needs to have certain qualification.

8:23 First of all, he or she should definitely be a citizen of India.

8:26 In addition to that, they can be a judge of High Court

8:30 for a period of 5 years at least or the word here is or.

8:34 Please remember if the word here is or means

8:36 that a person needs to fulfill either one of these three conditions,

8:40 not all of these three at the same time.

8:43 Had this word been and instead of or, this would

8:46 have meant all these three conditions needs to be fulfilled.

8:49 But as I said, the word here is or.

8:52 So, please remember the first condition that any person needs

8:55 to be fulfilled in addition to being a citizen of India,

8:58 that they need to be a judge of High Court or other

9:00 High Courts in India for at least a period of 5 years.

9:04 Otherwise, they can also be an advocate to High Court

9:08 where they have practiced for at least 10 years in succession.

9:11 Right?

9:12 And the third criteria here is in the eyes of president,

9:15 if a person is a distinguished jurist,

9:18 then they have the ability to be appointed as a judge

9:20 of Supreme Court in addition to being the citizen of India.

9:24 Please remember this qualification of the ability of a distinguished

9:28 jurist to be appointed as a judge of Supreme

9:30 Court is not present when it comes to appointment

9:32 process for the judge of a High Court in India.

9:35 Right?

9:36 So, this is what article 124 talks about.

9:38 It talks about the strength of judges.

9:40 It talks about the appointment process, and most importantly,

9:43 it talks about the qualification of a judge who wants

9:47 to become a judge of the Supreme Court of India.

9:50 Right?

9:50 Now, before we move on to a practice question,

9:52 which is also previous year question of UPSC,

9:54 there is a very important announcement.

9:57 The topic that I covered, that is Supreme Court of India,

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10:12 without covering these four subjects, you can't think of clearing UPSC exam.

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11:31 All right?

11:32 Now, before ending our today's discussion,

11:33 this is the question that I want you all to solve.

11:35 This came in UPSC 2014.

11:38 The power to increase the number of judges in the Supreme

11:40 Court is vested in which of these four authorities?

11:43 Please do let me know the correct answers in the comments.

11:45 This is not at all a difficult

11:47 question if you have followed the discussion diligently.

11:49 Do let me know the correct answer and the ones who

11:51 answer it correctly would get a thumbs up from my side.

11:54 And before we end up, this is where you'll find the notes, the Telegram channel.

11:57 It is called as ATS Live.

11:58 If you have difficulties in look locating it,

12:00 you can obviously scan the QR code.

12:02 You'll find the channel.

12:04 So, this is all from my side for today.

12:06 Please have a very good night.

12:07 We'll see each other again soon.