Justice Vineet Saran’s Tenure in Numbers

Justice Vineet Saran retired from the Supreme Court on May 10th, 2022. Saran J began his judicial career in February 2002 as a Judge of the Allahabad High Court. He was transferred to the Karnataka High Court in 2015. He served as Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court from February 2016 until his elevation to the  Supreme Court in August 2018.

As  Figure 1 indicates, Saran J's nearly 4-year-tenure is shorter than a majority of other sitting SC Judges—the average length of their tenures stands at 5.3 years.

Saran J wrote 28 judgments during his four years at the Supreme Court. This places his average rate of written Judgments per year at 7. This is lower than all other sitting SC Judges except Justice C.T. Ravikumar, who was elevated to the SC only 10 months ago, and Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Sudhanshu Dhulia, who have been at the Court for one day.

According to data compiled by Manupatra, most of Saran J’s Judgments were related to  motor vehicle matters (23%). He handled civil (14.28%), insurance (14.28%), and criminal matters (19%) as well. Justice Saran was part of many 5-Judge Constitution Benches, but wrote only one Constitution Bench Judgment concerning the Consumer Protection Act, 1986.

In total, Saran J served on Benches that produced 298 Judgments—he wrote 27 (9%) of these Judgments. 

In his first year at the Supreme Court, Saran J sat on Benches that produced 37 Judgments. Of these, he authored only 1. He authored 10 Judgment in 2019—his highest number yet. He wrote 8, 5, and 5 Judgments in 2020, 2021, and 2022 respectively.