The Verdictum: Justice K S Radhakrishnan

Each week, 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 KS Radhakrishnan..Justice Radhakrishnan enrolled as an advocate in December 1973 after obtaining his Master’s degree in law from Cochin University. Prior to his elevation to the Supreme Court, he was a Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court. Appointed on November 11 2009, he had a tenure of 1640 days in the apex court..Justice Radhakrishnan became a Permanent Judge of the Kerala High Court in 1996, at the age of 46. He was also acting Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court three times. He was elevated as Chief Justice of High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and assumed charge of office on January 7, 2008. Radhakrishnan assumed charge as the Chief Justice of High Court of Gujarat on September 4, 2008. Two months later, he was elevated as Supreme Court Judge at the age of 60..He was involved in a total of 362 judgments, 24 of which were delivered by a Bench that consisted of at least three judges. He delivered his last judgment with Justice Dipak Misra and his tenure came to an end in May this year..Month-wise distribution.The most prolific month for Justice Radhakrishnan was January, with 51 judgments delivered over the course of five years. This is followed by September, with 46 judgments delivered. The least productive months were June and July, with 5 and 15 judgments delivered respectively..Day-wise productivity.Justice Radhakrishnan’s most productive month in terms of judgments delivered per day was September, with an average of 0.38 judgments per day. January was the second most, with 0.33 judgments per day. The day-wise productivity was low just before and after the summer vacations..Year Wise Distribution of judgments.2013 was the most productive year for Justice Radhakrishnan, with him being involved in delivering 138 judgments. The least productive year was 2011 which saw just 9 judgments being delivered..Bench-wise distribution .Justice Radhakrishnan delivered 126 judgments while sitting with Justice Dipak Misra, a staggering 35.8% of the total judgments delivered during his tenure in the Supreme Court. He delivered 82 judgments sitting with Justice Sikri and 24 judgments while being part of a three-judge bench. He also delivered 2 judgments sitting with present Chief Justice H.L. Dattu..The last Verdictum covered the career of Justice Aftab Alam.