Union Cabinet Approves Increase in Supreme Court Judge Strength to 38

In a major move to address the judicial backlog, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Tuesday approved increasing the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court from 34 to 38 judges.

The decision involves introducing The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, 2026, which seeks to add four new judge positions to the apex court.

Currently, the court operates under a sanctioned strength of 33 judges plus the Chief Justice of India. This follows a similar expansion in 2019 and aims to expedite disposal of over 92,000 pending cases. 

Once the bill receives parliamentary approval, the new maximum strength will be 37 judges, excluding the CJI.