Justice C.T. Ravikumar: Tenure in numbers

On 5 January 2025, Justice C.T. Ravikumar retired after serving for 3.25 years at the Supreme Court. During this period, he authored 99 judgements and was a part of 373 benches*. His retirement reduced the Court’s sitting strength to 32 judges, leaving two vacancies of the sanctioned strength of 34.

At the time of his retirement, Justice Ravikumar was the only judge from the Kerala High Court. However, a Collegium resolution dated 7 January 2025 proposed the appointment of Justice K. Vinod Chandran, who also hails from the Kerala High Court. If his recommendation is cleared, the Court’s sitting strength would increase to 33 judges. 

Justice Ravikumar was one of nine judges appointed in August 2021 during former Chief Justice N.V. Ramana’s tenure. He is the second from this cohort to retire, following Justice Hima Kohli’s retirement in September 2024. 

In this article, we analyse Justice Ravikumar’s tenure in numbers.

Duration of tenure

Figure 1 plots the expected tenure of all sitting judges of the Supreme Court. The average tenure of the current sitting judges at the Supreme Court is 5.08 years. Justice Ravikumar’s tenure fell short of this average. 

Justice Ravikumar was appointed alongside Justices A.S. Oka, Vikram Nath, J.K. Maheshwari, Kohli, B.V. Nagarathna, M.M. Sundresh, Bela Trivedi and P.S. Narasimha. Within this group, Justice Ravikumar's tenure is the shortest, after Justice Kohli, who retired in September last year. Justice Narasimha will serve the longest tenure among this cohort.

Among the sitting judges, Justice J.B. Pardiwala will serve the longest tenure of 8.25 years.

Number of judgements authored

Figure 2 highlights the total judgements (blue bar) authored by judges who have served a tenure longer than two years at the Supreme Court. A separate figure (yellow bar) highlights the average judgements authored each year by the sitting judges. Justice Ravikumar authored 99 judgements, averaging 29.5 judgements per year. 

Among the judges elevated with him in August 2021, he ranks in the middle tier for both total judgements authored and annual output. Justices Oka, Nath and Nagarathna lead the pack with higher annual averages of 96.4, 48.9 and 47.4 judgements respectively. However, Justice Ravikumar’s average surpassed those of Justices Maheshwari (16.4), Trivedi (14.9), and Sundresh (8.05).

Notably, his annual average aligns with Justice Narasimha’s 30.4. 

Justice Ravikumar’s authorship also exceeds Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna’s annual average. CJI Khanna averages at 28.3, even though has authored 70 more judgements overall.

Year-wise breakdown of authorship

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

In his first year at the Supreme Court, Justice Ravikumar authored three judgements and was part of 11 benches. His authorship rate was 27.27 percent. 

In 2022, Justice Ravikumar authored five judgements across 105 benches, with a significantly lower authorship rate of 4.76 percent.

By 2023, his productivity increased, He authored 22 judgements and was part of 170 benches. This resulted in an authorship rate of 12.94 percent. 

2024 saw a surge in Justice Ravikumar’s judgement output. He authored 58 judgements—the highest in his 3.25-year-long tenure. He was part of 70 benches. He also had an authorship rate that peaked at 82.86 percent. 

Before his retirement in 2025, he authored 11 judgements and was part of 17 benches, with an authorship rate of 64.71 percent.**

Subject-matter of judgements

Of the 99 judgements authored by Justice Ravikumar, the majority—51 cases—were in criminal matters. 

This was followed by property-related cases (22) and family matters (13). He also delivered judgements in civil cases (12) and motor vehicle disputes (10). Additionally, Justice Ravikumar authored judgements in banking cases (7), insurance matters (5), and narcotics cases (2).

Read Justice Ravikumar’s notable judgements here.