Background

In the early years, all 8 judges including chief justice sat together to hear the cases. With the increase in workload, Parliament increased the number of judges gradually from 8 in 1950 to the present 34 and the constitution of benches also changed and they sat in smaller benches of two and three to dispose of backlogs (currently about 60,000 cases)

In the 1960s, Supreme Court heard about 100 five-judge or larger benches a year. By the first decade of the 2000s, the court averaged only about 10 constitution benches a year. Thus, various important cases are being heard by smaller benches such as RTE act case was decided by three judges, Naz Foundation case by just two judges etc. However, focusing more judges on constitution benches also comes with a concern that it could come at the cost of less access to the court for other matters.