The Verdictum: Justice B S Chauhan

The Verdictum examines the judgments delivered by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. Along with analysis of the numbers, The Verdictum also analyses various facts and figures associated with the judge. This week, we examine the number of judgments delivered by Justice B.S Chauhan

Appointed to the Supreme Court on May 11, 2009, Justice BS Chauhan had a tenure of 1,910 days in the apex court. Enrolled as an advocate in 1974, Chauhan completed his law degree from Benaras Hindu University. He practiced primarily in the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court, and was the government counsel for Uttar Pradesh and Noida before the Supreme Court.

He was made a permanent judge of the Allahabad High Court in April 1995, aged 46, and was transferred to the Rajasthan High Court two years later. In 2003, he was transferred back to the Allahabad High Court before being appointed as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court in 2008. Ten months later in May of 2009, aged 59, he was elevated to the Supreme Court. His tenure came to an end in July this year, a tenure that has not been without controversy.

As a judge of the Supreme Court, he was involved in a total of 586 judgments, with his first judgment delivered by a three-judge Bench of Justices BS Agarwal and GS Singhvi, barely two days after he was elevated to the apex court. He was involved in 64 judgments delivered by a Bench that consisted of at least three judges.

Month-wise Breakdown of Judgments

The month of May proved to be the most productive month for Justice Chauhan, with 112 judgments delivered in May over the course of five years. This was followed by July (81 judgments) and August (62 judgments). The least number of judgments were delivered in December (19 judgments) and June (15 judgments).

Day-wise Productivity

On average, the month immediately before and after the summer vacations were the most productive for Justice Chauhan, delivering an average of 0.6 judgments in May and 0.52 judgments in July. The least productive months were the relatively short months of December (0.12 judgments) and June (0.12 judgments).

Year-wise Distribution of Judgments

Justice Chauhan was involved in a total of 134 judgments in his penultimate year at office, eight more than in his second year in office. The least number of judgments (74) were delivered in the year 2012.

Bench-wise Distribution

Justice Chauhan has delivered 132 judgments while sitting with the former Chief Justice of India, P Sathasivam. To put that in perspective, that is nearly 23% of all the judgments delivered by Justice Chauhan. Another interesting statistic to note here is that he has been part of 64 judgments delivered by a bench that had at least three judges. This is the second largest segment of judgments in Justice Chauhan’s tenure, followed by Justice Swatanter Kumar (61) and Justice Kalifulla (59).