To Strengthen The Supreme Court, Divide It, Pg6

Key Highlights:

• As of late 2025, the Supreme Court of India faced its heaviest backlog ever, with 92,318 pending cases, an increase of nearly 10,000 from the previous year.
• The court's constitutional work has significantly declined, with Constitution Benches deciding fewer than 10 cases annually in the last decade, compared to 134 in the early 1960s.
• A proposal suggests splitting the Supreme Court into a lean Constitutional Court in Delhi and four or five regional Courts of Appeal to manage the caseload.
• The 229th Law Commission Report (2009) and a Parliamentary Standing Committee (2023) have previously recommended regional benches for the Supreme Court.
• The current system is criticized for functioning as a "general court of fourth appeal" due to the high volume of Special Leave Petitions under Article 136.

Detailed Insights:

• The increasing backlog is attributed to the overwhelming number of ordinary appeals, diverting the Supreme Court from its primary role of interpreting the Constitution.
• The proposed two-tier structure aims to allow specialization, with the Constitutional Court focusing on constitutional matters and regional courts handling routine appeals.
• This reform is expected to bring the final tier of ordinary justice closer to citizens and improve the speed of case disposal.
• International examples like the U.S. Supreme Court, South Africa's Constitutional Court, and Germany's Federal Constitutional Court operate with similar pyramid-shaped judicial structures.
• Brazil's experience with its Supreme Federal Tribunal and the creation of a separate Superior Tribunal of Justice in 1988 offers a parallel, though it highlights the need for a filtering mechanism for appeals.
• The article suggests that Article 130 of the Constitution might allow for the establishment of regional benches without requiring a constitutional amendment.
• While concerns exist about a divided court losing its singular authority, the article argues that the Supreme Court is already fragmented into numerous small benches that often contradict each other.
• The expansion of the bench strength to 34 in 2019 and 38 in 2026 has not resolved the pendency issue, indicating that merely adding judges is insufficient without structural reform.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Special Leave Petitions (SLPs): Discretionary appeals to the Supreme Court under Article 136 of the Constitution, intended for rare cases.
• Constitution Bench: A bench of five or more judges of the Supreme Court constituted to decide cases involving a substantial question of law concerning the interpretation of the Constitution.
• Article 130: Constitutional provision that states the Supreme Court shall sit in Delhi or in such other place or places as the Chief Justice of India may, with the approval of the President, from time to time, appoint.