Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday told the Lok Sabha that judges in the higher judiciary should be careful about their observations in ongoing cases and should be pertinent to the case they are hearing.

Mr. Prasad made these remarks during the passage of a Bill to increase the strength of judges in the Supreme Court from 30 to 33 in addition to the Chief Justice of India.

The Minister said that at times, judges made remarks about government policy that are arrived after due processes.

“We respect the judiciary. But if they want to make an observation then they should have the courage to write it in their judgments,” he said.

The Minister also said that the move is aimed at cutting down on the delay of the top court that has nearly 60,000 cases pending.

The Bill comes days after Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi requested Prime Minister Modi to increase the number of Supreme Court judges. The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 was last amended in 2009 to increase the judges strength from 25 to 30 excluding the CJI.

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