Court Data
Justice Sanjay Karol’s tenure in numbers
Justice Sanjay Karol authored 273 judgements during his three and half year long tenure
On 22 August, Justice Sanjay Karol will retire as a Judge of the Supreme Court after having served a tenure of 3.5 years. Before his time at the top court, Justice Karol had served as the Chief Justice of the Tripura and Patna High Courts between 2018 and 2023. He also served as a Judge of the High Court of Himachal Pradesh for more than eleven years, including one year as the Acting Chief Justice.
Justice Karol was among the five judges recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium on 13 December 2022. He was appointed to the top court on 6 February 2023 alongside Justices Pankaj Mithal, P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Manoj Misra.
Justice Karol is the fourth judge from the Supreme Court to retire this year. With his retirement, the strength of the Court will come down to 34; four less than the sanctioned sitting strength.
Figure 1 illustrates the expected tenure of all judges of the Supreme Court. Notably, Justice Karol’s tenure of 3.5 years falls below the average tenure of 5 years. His tenure is shorter compared to the Judges appointed on the same day—Justice Misra (expected tenure of 7.3 years), Justice Kumar (5.5 years), Justice Amanullah (5.3 years).
Justice Mithal, who retired on 16 June, had the shortest tenure in this batch of appointments (3.4 years).
Number of judgements authored
Figure 2 highlights the total judgements authored by Judges of the Supreme Court and their yearly average judgement output. For the purposes of illustration, the data only includes judges who have completed a tenure of two years at the top court.
Justice Karol authored 273 judgements within a span of 3.5 years, making him the fifth most prolific judge at the top court. On an average, Justice Karol has authored 78 judgements each year.
Justices Sanjay Kumar, Amanullah and Misra have authored 162, 122 and 163 judgements each.
Year-wise breakdown
Figure 3 illustrates the annual breakdown of judgements authored by Justice Karol. The figure denotes the total of judgements (left), total number of benches a judge has been a part of (middle) and the rate of authorship/number of benches each year (right).
Justice Karol authored 50 judgements and was a part of 97 benches in his first year at the Court, reaching the authorship rate of 51.5 per cent.
In 2024, Justice Karol’s authorship rate increased to 72 per cent, authoring 57 judgements.
His authorship rate dipped to 52.7 per cent in 2025, with 78 judgements.
He authored the most number of judgements (88) in 2026, with an authorship rate of 60.6 per cent.
Overall, Justice Karol has authored judgements in 58.2 per cent of the benches he was a part of.
Subject-matter breakdown
Justice Karol authored majority judgements in criminal matters (116), followed by motor vehicles (43), property (41), civil (27) and family (26) matters.
*data collected from Manupatra on 21 August 2026