Court Data

Justice Hima Kohli authored 40 judgements

In her three year tenure, Justice Kohli averaged approximately 13 judgements a year

Justice Hima Kohli will retire on 1 September 2024 after a three year tenure at the Supreme Court. She was elevated in August 2021 along with eight other appointees. With her retirement, the Supreme Court’s sitting strength will be at 33 judges with one vacancy.

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 yellow represents the average number of judgements written each year. 

At the outset, the highest number of judgements are authored by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud at 606 judgements, averaged at 73 judgements a year. 

Justice Kohli authored 40 judgements in her three-year tenure, an average of 13 judgements a year. Of her colleagues who were elevated on the same day, Justice Oka has authored the most judgements so far—213. This is followed by Justices Nath (106), Nagarathna (73), Trivedi (73), Narasimha (55), Ravikumar (45), Maheshwari (41), and Sundresh (40). 

Year-wise breakdown of authorship 

Figure 2 gives a breakdown of the number of judgements (yellow) authored by Justice Kohli along with the number of benches (blue) she was a part of. An additional data point of rate of authorship (number of benches where she authored the judgement, expressed in percentage terms) is displayed by the red bar. 

In her first year at the Supreme Court, Justice Kohli authored six judgements and was part of 28 benches, with an authorship rate of 21.42 percent. This lower volume of activity is likely due to her appointment in the last quarter of 2021.

In her second year, she authored 20 judgments and sat on 95 benches, with a steady authorship rate of 21.05 percent. This was her most productive year, in terms of the number of judgements and benches she sat on. 

2023 saw a decline with Justice Kohli authoring nine judgments and participating in 61 benches. Her authorship rate also dropped to 14.75 percent.

In her last working year, Justice Kohli has so far authored five judgments while sitting on 24 benches, with an authorship rate of 20.83 percent. 

For a detailed analysis of her tenure make sure to read our tenure in numbers and notable judgements.