Justice A.S. Bopanna authored 91 judgements

Justice A.S. Bopanna retired on 19 May 2024 after a five year tenure at the Supreme Court. He authored 91 judgements during this time. In this article, we will look at Justice Bopanna’s output on a yearly basis.

Figure 1 shows the total number of judgements authored by sitting judges of the Supreme Court. The bar in dark blue plots the total number of judgements authored by each judge.  The bar in light blue represents the average number of judgements written each year. 

During his five year tenure, Justice Bopanna authored 91 judgements. This is an average of 18.6 judgements per year. He comes second in his cohort, after Justice Gavai who has authored 197 judgements within five years. However, Justice Bopanna has written more than Justice Kant has authored 66 judgements. Justice Bose had authored 67 judgements at the time of his retirement. These judges have served around the same tenure at the Court so far. 

Among the sitting judges, CJI Chandrachud has authored the highest number of judgements at 598 judgements, coming up to 74.7 judgements a year.

Year-wise breakdown of authorship

Figure 2 gives a breakdown of the number of judgements (purple) authored by Justice Bopanna along with the number of benches (yellow) he was a part of. An additional data point of rate of authorship is displayed on the blue bar. The authorship rate is the number of judgements authored by Justice Bopanna from the benches he was a part of. 

In his first year as a judge of the Supreme Court, Justice Bopanna authored 29 judgements and was a part of 120 benches. This was also the year where he authored the highest number of judgements, despite being appointed almost mid-year in May. His authorship rate was also the highest at 24.16%. 

2020 saw a dip in the number of judgements he wrote (15 judgements) and the number of benches he was a part of (72 benches) owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. This increased to 27 judgements and 127 benches in 2021. That year saw the highest bench activity in Justice Bopanna’s career. 2020 and 2021 saw an authorship rate of 20.83% and 21.25% respectively. 

Justice Bopanna had the lowest authorship rate of 8.85% in 2022. He wrote just  10 judgements that year though he was a part of 113 benches. In the same year, he was a part of a Constitution Bench which heard four cases. 

In 2023, he wrote nine judgements. However, he was also part of fewer benches in 2023, at 76. Overall, his authorship rate increased from 2022 to 11.8%.  

By May 2024, Justice Bopanna authored one judgement and was a part of 10 benches