Bill for more Supreme Court judges gets Lok Sabha nod

Judges should exercise restraint, says Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

August 05, 2019 08:48 pm | Updated June 08, 2020 10:35 pm IST - New Delhi

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla during the Budget session of the Parliament in New Delhi on August 5, 2019.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla during the Budget session of the Parliament in New Delhi on August 5, 2019.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday told the Lok Sabha that judges in the higher judiciary should be careful about their observations in ongoing cases and should be pertinent to the case they are hearing.

Mr. Prasad made these remarks during the passage of a Bill to increase the strength of judges in the Supreme Court from 30 to 33 in addition to the Chief Justice of India.

The Minister said that at times, judges made remarks about government policy that are arrived after due processes.

“We respect the judiciary. But if they want to make an observation then they should have the courage to write it in their judgments,” he said.

The Minister also said that the move is aimed at cutting down on the delay of the top court that has nearly 60,000 cases pending.

The Bill comes days after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi requested Prime Minister Modi to increase the number of Supreme Court judges. The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 was last amended in 2009 to increase the judges strength from 25 to 30 excluding the CJI.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.