The Ordinance question before the Supreme Court

I n February 1937, the President of the United States of America, Franklin D. Roosevelt, asked Congress to enlarge the nine-judge Supreme Court. He sought a new justice for each one past 70 who refused to retire, up to 15 in all. The Senate Judiciary Committee saw through it. It preferred “an independent Court, a fearless Court,” to one that bent “out of fear or sense of obligation to the appointing power.” The Senate refused, with 70 members voting against and 20 in favour, and the plan was dead. In Delhi last week, five judges took the oath; three occupy chairs, that no statute has created. They sit because the President, by Ordinance, lifted the sanctioned strength from 34 to 38.