The Article 124(1) is a foundational provision within the Constitution of India, specifically located in Part V, Chapter IV, which deals with the Union Judiciary. It is the constitutional basis for the existence and composition of the apex court. The provision was created when the Constitution came into force on January 26, 1950, to establish the Supreme Court of India as the highest judicial authority, replacing the Federal Court of India and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
The core mechanism of Article 124(1) is to mandate that there shall be a Supreme Court of India. It specifies that the court must consist of a Chief Justice of India and, initially, "not more than seven other Judges". Crucially, it includes a flexible clause: "until Parliament by law prescribes a larger number". This clause solved the problem of a fixed judicial strength by giving the power to Parliament to increase the number of judges through a legislative act, such as the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, to manage the rising judicial workload and case pendency.
This article connects directly to the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, which is the law Parliament uses to prescribe the actual strength. The sanctioned strength has been increased multiple times since the Constitution's commencement. Most recently, the strength was increased from 31 to 34 (including the CJI) by the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2019. In May 2026, the President promulgated an Ordinance under Article 123 to further increase the strength to 38 (including the CJI) by amending the 1956 Act, replacing the word "thirty-three" with "thirty-seven". The fundamental structure laid down in Article 124(1)—a Chief Justice plus a number of judges prescribed by Parliament—has remained the same, while the actual number of judges has changed.