UPSC Prelims 2014 Question:

The power to increase the number of judges in the Supreme Court of India is vested in

Explanation: 

• The original Constitution of 1950 envisaged a Supreme Court with a Chief Justice and 7 puisne Judges - leaving it to Parliament to increase this number.
  
  
• At present, the Supreme Court consists of thirty-four judges (one chief justice and thirty three other judges). In 2019, the centre notified an increase in the number of Supreme Court judges from thirty-one to thirty-four, including the Chief Justice of India. This followed the enactment of the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2019. Originally, the strength of the Supreme Court was fixed at eight (one chief justice and seven other judges). The Parliament has increased this number of other judges progressively to ten in 1956, to thirteen in 1960, to seventeen in 1977, to twenty-five in 1986, to thirty in 2008 and to thirty-three in 2019.
  
  

Therefore, option (2) is the correct answer. 

Subject: Polity | Judiciary