SSC CGL 2024 Tier-I · 13 September 2024, Shift 1 · General Awareness · Question 14 of 100

Text as printed on a candidate's response sheet for this shift; answer per SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet. Solution last reviewed 10 September 2026.

Where this paper and its answers come from

SSC does not publish CGL question papers or a public answer key. The questions and options here are reproduced as printed on a candidate's own response sheet for this shift — the Commission's text, unchanged. Each answer is SSC's tentative key as marked on that sheet; SSC allowed challenges to it and never publishes a final key. The solutions are written by UnlockIAS.

The Supreme Court of India comprises the Chief Justice and not more than ______ other Judges appointed by the President of India.

(a)33
(b)38
(c)35
(d)37

Answer

Why

Correct — A. The stem is quoting Article 124(1), which sets the Court at the Chief Justice plus a number Parliament may raise by law.

Parliament last raised it through the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2019, taking the other judges from 30 to 33.

So the sanctioned strength is 34 in all — the CJI plus 33 — and the blank, which asks only for the other judges, takes option (a).

Why the others are wrong

(b)
38 — 38 has never been the sanctioned figure. Parliament can raise the number only by amending the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956, and the latest amendment stopped at 33.
(c)
35 — 35 is the near miss for candidates who remember only that the figure sits in the mid-thirties. The Act names 33 other judges, and 34 is the bench strength including the Chief Justice.
(d)
37 — 37 matches no provision of the Act. Carry the pair — 33 other judges, 34 with the Chief Justice — and every number in between falls away.

Concept

The Constitution fixes the Supreme Court's floor, not its ceiling.

Article 124(1) created a Court of the Chief Justice and not more than seven other judges, and expressly let Parliament prescribe a larger number by law. Parliament has done that repeatedly through the Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Act, 1956 and its amendments, so the figure has climbed with the docket.

Article 124(2) is the appointing provision the stem alludes to: every judge is appointed by the President by warrant under hand and seal.

Read the blank's wording. It asks for judges other than the Chief Justice, so the answer is 33 and not the full sanctioned strength of 34 — a distinction SSC leans on even when 34 is not printed as an option.

Key facts

Article 124(1) originally provided for a Chief Justice and not more than seven other judges, subject to Parliament prescribing a larger number.
The Supreme Court (Number of Judges) Amendment Act, 2019 raised the number of judges other than the CJI from 30 to 33.
The sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court is therefore 34, including the Chief Justice of India.
Article 124(2) provides that every Supreme Court judge is appointed by the President of India.

Study next

Article 124 and the collegium system for appointing Supreme Court judgesArticle 217 and the appointment of High Court judgesQualifications, tenure and removal of a Supreme Court judge

Common traps

Answering with the total strength of 34 when the blank asks only for judges other than the Chief Justice
Assuming the Constitution itself fixes the current number, when it fixes only the original seven and lets Parliament raise it

Questions on the higher judiciary come as a single retrievable fact — a number, an Article or an appointing authority.

The same ground is worked at 10 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.8, which asks which Article empowers the President to appoint Supreme Court judges, and at 23 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q.24 on what Articles 214 to 231 deal with.

Related PYQs

No directly related past PYQ was found.