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          Madam, at the inception, in 1950, when the Supreme Court was established, what was the strength of judges? The strength of judges was eight. Now, what I will speak, I think, all the Members of Parliament will like, although, it is not directly connected.

19.00 hrs           I would request all the hon. Members to listen to this. Everywhere vacancies are being increased. In the name of pendency of the work, the strength of judges is increased; the strength of IPS cadre is increased; the strength of IAS cadre is increased. Has the Government ever thought how many Members of Parliament are now required because of the increase in number of voters? Only in the case of Members of Parliament, there is no increase in strength. If the strength of Members of Parliament is increased, there will be a hue and cry.

          I would also like to understand why only three more Judges are there in this case.  The number can obviously be increased to six or nine or ten.  What was the limitation for the Government to restrict it to three Judges this time?  When Pinaki ji was speaking, he was mentioning that there could be a problem with accommodation.  But, I think, the Government will have another reason for this as to why they have chosen to increase the number of Supreme Court Judges by three.   It is because, if you look at the percentage of vacancies in all the courts across India, it was 23 per cent in 2006; it increased to 35 per cent in 2018. In the Supreme Court, the vacancies have increased from eight per cent to 23 per cent.  In High Courts, the percentage of vacancies has increased from 16 to 38.  So many vacancies are there across the courts.  Definitely, there is a need to think over how to fill up the vacancies existing in the courts across the country.