Court Data
Justice S.K. Kaul served a tenure of 6.75 years
Justice Kaul’s 6.75 year long tenure was more than the average tenure of sitting judges in the Supreme Court
Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul retired on 25 December 2023. He was the second senior most judge of the Supreme Court at that time. Appointed in February 2017, his tenure as a judge of the Supreme Court spanned 6.75 years.
During this time, Justice Kaul presided over numerous landmark Constitution Benches including the Plea for marriage equality, the abrogation of Article 370, and the fundamental right to privacy.
Figure 1 depicts the average tenure of all sitting judges of the Supreme Court at the time of Justice Kauls retirement. The y-axis plots the sitting judges and the x-axis represents their total tenure.
Evidently, Justice Kaul had the seventh highest tenure among his peers. This is also higher than the average tenure of a Supreme Court judge—5.4 years.
Justice Kaul was appointed in the Supreme Court alongside Justices Deepak Gupta, M.M. Shantangoudar, Navin Sinha, Abdul Nazeer. Justice Kaul leads the chart in his cohort and is followed by Justice Nazeer who retired in January 2023 after a six year tenure.
Currently, the longest serving judge in the Supreme Court is Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud who was appointed in May 2016. In November 2024, CJI Chandrachud will retire with a tenure of 8.5 years.