SC Justices Spend an Average 14.7 Years in High Courts Before Elevation

Out of 27 sitting judges in the Supreme Court, 24 have previously served as judges in the High Court. Justice Rohinton Nariman, Justice Nageswara Rao and Justice U.U. Lalit were elevated directly to the Supreme Court without previous judicial experience.

Of the sitting judges with experience in the High Court, only Justices Abdul Nazeer, Sanjiv Khanna and B.R. Gavai never served as Chief Justice of the High Court from which they were elevated from. In this post we examine the average High Court tenure of the current sitting judges.

The average High Court tenure of the sitting Supreme Court justices is 5373 days (14.72 years) which is about 14 years, 8 months and 20 days. However, only 11 sitting judges have served as long or longer than the average, with Justice Indira Banerjee having the longest term as a High Court judge. She served as a permanent judge in the High Courts of Calcutta, Delhi and Madras with her presiding as Chief Justice of the Madras High court.

If the above data is analysed by seniority, one can notice that the more recent appointments have, on average, less time served as a High Court judge. Justice Hrishikesh Roy, the most recent appointee, is the only sitting justice to have served less than 13 years in the High Court.

Of the 12 senior most judges on this list, only Justice Navin Sinha, Justice Abdul Nazeer and Chief Justice Ramana fall under the 14.72 year average. Of the 12 junior-most judges only Justice Surya Kant, Justice Bose and Justice Ravindra Bhatt have met or exceeded the average tenure in the High Court.