Time taken to argue in constitution bench matters

Transcript:

Did you know that Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued for 459 minutes before the 9-judge Constitution Bench in the Sabarimala Reference? That’s nearly 8 courtroom hours.

Although the Court had initially allocated eight days to conclude the proceedings in the Sabarimala matter, the hearing extended eight days beyond schedule.

We at the Supreme Court Observer have analysed the time taken to argue in four notable cases – the matter concerning the definition of “industry”, the Sabarimala Reference, the challenge to the abrogation of Article 370, and the Plea for Marriage Equality.

These articles present a data-set of the amount of time and the number of words spoken by each of the petitioners and the respondents.

In the industry matter we also checked the bench engagement—five judges out of nine judges actively participated and interrogated with arguments submitted by the counsel. Across the three days, the Bench spoke 13,713 words, or 13 per cent of the hearing’s 106,793-word total.

Analysing court hearings based on the number of words spoken by each judge in the bench helps to understand who they engaged with, when, and for how long.

Judges may intervene between arguments for housekeeping the floor, calling on counsel, marking time and occasionally interjecting. 

Our data set examines what the participation of the bar and bench reveals about the judicial engagement in the top Court.