The number of judges in each High Court is determined by the:

Under Article 216, every High Court consists of a Chief Justice and such other judges as the President may from time to time deem necessary to appoint. So the President fixes the strength of each High Court.

Comparison with the Supreme Court:

• For the Supreme Court, the number of judges is fixed by Parliament by law (Article 124(1)).
• For the High Courts, there is no fixed number in the Constitution; the President decides the strength.

In practice:

• The Ministry of Law and Justice, in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court and the state government, proposes changes in the sanctioned strength.
• The strength is revised from time to time according to the workload.

Additional and acting judges:

• Under Article 224, the President can appoint additional judges for up to two years to clear arrears of work.
• He can also appoint acting judges when a permanent judge is absent.
• Under Article 224A, retired judges can be requested to sit as judges.

Largest and smallest High Courts:

• The Allahabad High Court has the largest sanctioned strength, of about 160 judges.
• Smaller High Courts, such as those of Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur and Tripura, have only a few judges.

Vacancies:

High Courts often have a large number of vacancies, which contributes to the pendency of cases.

Total sanctioned strength:

The total sanctioned strength of all High Courts is more than 1,100 judges.

Appointment of judges:

Judges are appointed by the President after consulting the Chief Justice of India, the Governor and the Chief Justice of the High Court, on the recommendation of the collegium (Article 217).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Parliament fixes the number of Supreme Court judges, not High Court judges.
• ✗The Chief Justice of India and the Governor are consulted for appointments but do not fix the strength.