Datanomics: Small increase in number of judges may not be enough

India's judicial strength has risen since 2019, but pending cases have grown faster, leaving the country with a severe shortage of judges relative to its population and workload

The Lok Sabha recently passed the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Bill, raising the sanctioned strength of apex court judges from 33 to 37 to address mounting backlogs. While this offers immediate relief, long-term structural issues persist. Data reveals that although the total number of judges across all court tiers increased from 20,573 in 2019 to 21,841 in 2025, judicial capacity relative to workload has severely declined. Specifically, the number of judges per million pending cases dropped from 555 in 2019 to 403 in 2025, as litigation outpaced appointments. Meanwhile, India’s judge-to-population ratio has remained almost flat, moving from 15.3 per million in 2019 to 14.8 in 2020, and reaching 15.4 in 2025. Among judicial tiers, subordinate courts maintain a higher judge-to-population density than higher courts. Internationally, India ranks 10th in judicial strength based on the judge-to-population ratio. In 2024, nations such as France, the UK, and Germany led with 418, 286, and 249 judges per million people, respectively. India’s figure of just 15 highlights a profound shortage that marginal additions cannot easily resolve.