Justice V. Ramasubramanian: Rate of Judgement Authorship

Justice V. Ramasubramanian retired today after a tenure of 3.75 years at the SC. He was part of 313 benches and authored 102 judgements. He wrote judgements in 32.6% of the benches he was part of.

Rate of Judgement Authorship

Figure 1 above shows three values for each year that Justice Ramasubramanian was at the SC: 

1. The number of judgements he authored (yellow bar),
2. The number of benches he was on (dark blue bar) and 
3. The percentage of those benches that he wrote a judgement in (light blue bar)

Justice Ramasubramanian showed an increasing rate of judgement authorship in the first three years of his tenure. 

In his three months at the SC in 2019, his rate of authorship was 6.1%. He authored two judgements and was part of 33 benches. In 2020—his first full year at the SC, his rate of judgement authorship increased to 34.3% despite the Covid-19 pandemic. He was part of 64 benches and authored 22 judgements. In 2021 his authorship rate further increased to 40.5%. He was part of 84 benches and authored 34 judgements. 

In 2022, he heard more cases than ever (96). However, he authored only 28 judgements. His rate of judgement authorship was 29.1%. 

In the 5 working months of 2023 before his retirement, he heard 36 cases and authored judgements in 16 of them bringing his rate of judgement authorship to 44.4%. From the point of judgement authorship alone, this was his most productive year at the SC.

Justice Ramasubramanian’s 3.75-year tenure at the SC is shorter than that of the recently retired Justices K.M. Joseph (4.75 years) and Ajay Rastogi (4.5 years). Despite this, his rate of judgement authorship seems to be comparable to theirs. Justice Joseph authored judgements in 33% of the cases he heard and Justice Rastogi in 31.5%.