Justice Rajesh Bindal: Tenure in numbers

long tenure. Justice Bindal was elevated to the top court in February 2023. Hailing from the Punjab and Haryana High Court, he has served as the Acting Chief Justice of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court and the Calcutta High Court. Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Bindal was the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court. 

The Collegium resolution recommending Justice Bindal’s elevation noted that his appointment would bring adequate representation of the Punjab and Haryana High Court—currently represented by Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice A.G. Masih. 

The retirement of Justice Bindal will reduce the sitting strength of the Supreme Court to 32 judges out of the sanctioned strength of 34 judges. The retirement is an opportunity for the Supreme Court Collegium to elevate two judges.The last Collegium recommendation for appointment to the top court was made more than six months ago in August 2025.

During his three year long tenure, Justice Bindal authored 166 judgements and was a part of 254 benches*. 

Figure 1 plots the expected tenure of all sitting judges of the Supreme Court. The average tenure of the sitting judges is 5.1 years. Justice Bindal’s three year long tenure is below the average tenure of sitting judges in the current roster.

Justice Aravind Kumar, appointed on the same day as Justice Bindal, is expected to serve a tenure of 4.5 years at the Supreme Court.

Justice J.B. Pardiwala is expected to serve the longest tenure—8.25 years. 

Number of judgements authored

Figure 2 highlights the total judgements (purple bar) authored by judges who have served a tenure longer than two years at the Supreme Court. A separate figure (yellow bar) highlights the annual average of judgements authored by each judge. 

Justice Bindal authored 166 judgements with an average of 55 judgements a year. 

Justice Kumar has authored 130 judgements with an average of 43 judgements a year. A week prior to Justice Kumar and Bindal’s appointment, five other judges were appointed—Justices Pankaj Mithal, Sanjay Karol, P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Manoj Misra. Among the February 2023 appointees, Justice Karol has authored the highest number of judgements with 200 in total and an annual average of 66. 

Justice B.V. Nagarathna has authored the maximum number of judgements in this data set with 361 judgements, averaging at 90 judgements a year. 

Year-wise breakdown of judgement authorship

Figure 3 breaks down the number of judgements (left bar) authored by Justice Bindal and the number of benches (middle bar) he was a part of. The right bar indicates the rate of authorship (number of benches where he authored the judgement, expressed in percentage terms).

The figure shows that Justice Bindal’s judgements and bench activity consistently dropped through the years. What is interesting is that his rate of judgement of authorship remained steady and constant throughout this period at more than 60 per cent. 

Justice Bindal authored his highest number of judgements in 2023—72 judgements. He was a part of 111 benches that year and his rate of authorship was 64.86 per cent. 

In 2024, Justice Bindal authored 50 judgements and was a part of 76 benches with an authorship rate of 65.78 per cent 

His authorship and bench activity dropped in 2025 to 36 judgements and 54 benches respectively, maintaining his authorship rate at 66.66 per cent. 

In his last four months at the Supreme Court, Justice Bindal authored eight judgements while being on 13 benches—with a 61 per cent authorship. 

Overall, Justice Bindal has authored judgements in 64 per cent of benches he was a part of. 

Subject-matter breakdown 

The majority of judgements authored by Justice Bindal were in criminal matters (46). This is followed by service matters (44), property (30), civil (20), and motor vehicles (17). 

*data collected from Manupatra on 14 April 2026