 bill no 41 of 2008 the supreme court (number of judges) amendment bill, 2008 a billfurther to amend the supreme court (number of judges) act, 1956be it enacted by parliament in the fifty-ninth year of the republic of india as follows:— statement of objects and reasonsthe pendency of cases in the supreme court of india has constantly been on the rise largely due to higher rate of institution of cases as on the 31st day of march, 2007, 41,581 cases were pending in the supreme court the chief justice of india has intimated that the judges in the supreme court feel over-burdened and have been working under acute work pressure it has also not been possible for the chief justice of india to constitute a five- judge bench on a regular basis to hear cases involving interpretation of constitutional law as doing that would result in constitution of less number of division benches which in turn will result in delay in hearing of other civil and criminal matters2 suitable steps are, therefore, required to be taken to augment the strength of the judges in the supreme court so that it can function more efficiently and effectively towards attaining the ultimate goal of rendering speedy justice to the litigant public3 it is, therefore, proposed to amend the supreme court (number of judges) act, 1956to increase the number of judges in the supreme court from twenty-five to thirty, excluding the chief justice of india4  the bill seeks to achieve the above objectivenew delhi;hr bhardwajthe 15th  april,  2008 ———— president's  recommendation  under  article 117 of the constitution of india[copy of letter no 12011/1/2002-usii  dated the 15th april, 2008 from shri h r bhardwaj, minister of law and justice to the  secretary-general, lok sabha]the president, having been informed of the subject matter of the proposed supreme court (number of judges) amendment bill, 2008, has recommended the introduction of the bill under clause (1) of article 117 of the constitution of india financial memorandumclause 2 of the bill seeks to increase the strength of the judges of the supreme court from the present strength of 25 to 30 judges excluding the chief justice of india this will entail expenditure on account of pay and allowances on creation of 5 additional posts of judges along with required staff the judges will also be entitled to the use of rentfree official residence under rule 4 of the supreme court judges rules, 1959 each judge will have to be provided with personal staff at residence and office the increase in the strength of the judges would also require construction of 5 bungalows for accommodating the judges which would entail expenditure on the construction and the maintenance thereof2 the recurring expenditure would consist of salary of 5 judges along with their staff amounting to rs 1157 lakhs per month amounting to rs 17137 lakhs per annum the recurring expenses on maintenance of the accommodation provided to the judges would be approximately rs 665 lakhs per bungalow per annum which would include general maintenance and electricity and water charges the non-recurring expenditure would be the cost of constructing 5 bungalows at a total cost of rs 985 crores and purchase of vehicles, electronic items, etc, at a cost of approximately rs 8125 lakhs thus, the total non-recurring expenditure would be approximately rs 1066 crores3 the bill, if enacted, is not likely to involve any other recurring or non-recurring expenditure annexureextract from the supreme court (number of judges) act, 1956(55 of 1956)2  the maximum number of judges of the supreme court, excluding the chief justice of india, shall be twenty-fivemaximum number of supreme court judges other than chief justice————a billfurther to amend the supreme court (number of judges) act, 1956————(shri hr bhardwaj, minister of law and justice)mgipmrnd—1600ls(s-5)—17042008