Judge-Wise Statistics Of Reportable Judgments Of Supreme Court In May 2022

Statistics for May 2022 –

Out of the total 101 Reportable Judgments delivered in May 2022, Justice M.R. Shah delivered 26 Reportable Judgments, of which 11 were delivered on the last working day of Court i.e. 20^th May 2022. After the commencement of the Court vacation, the Supreme Court delivered 5 Reportable Judgments (upto 31^st May, 2022) during the sittings of the vacation bench. Out of these 5 Judgments, 2 were delivered by Justice Dr. D.Y.Chandrachud, and 1 each was delivered by Justice B.R.Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bela M. Trivedi.

Subject-wise Statistics for May 2022 –

The maximum number of judgments (i.e. 21) were authored in the field of criminal law. The classification of criminal law reportable judgments is as under –

Classification of Reportable Criminal Law Judgments in May 2022

This was followed by 18 judgments authored in the field of civil law, and 16 judgments in the service law area. The subject-wise distribution of Reportable Judgments for May 2022 is as under :

Out of the 101 Reportable Judgments, the Appeals / Petitions were allowed in 49.5% cases (i.e. 50 petitions / appeals); 25.7% Appeals / Petitions were dismissed (i.e. 26 cases); 9.9% Appeals / Petitions were disposed of with directions (i.e. 10 cases); 7.9% Appeals / Petitions were partly allowed (i.e. 8 cases), and in 6.9% cases, the Bench passed a reportable judgment, and kept the matter pending for further hearing (i.e. 7 cases). The pie chart of outcome of Appeals / Petitions recorded in Reportable Judgments for May, 2022 is as under –

Highlights for May 2022 –

(1) Justice Vineet Saran, who retired on 10.05.2022, delivered 3 Judgments in this month. In one Judgment (arising out of an appeal against conviction u/S. 302 I.P.C.), a Bench comprising of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Vineet Saran, upon considering the contradictions of the prosecution witnesses, acquitted the Accused person.

(2) Justice L. Nageswara Rao, who retired on 07.06.2022, authored two important Judgments in May 2022, i.e. Jacob Puliyel v. Union of India & Ors., which dealt with the challenge to the vaccine mandate for availing services / benefits; and in the second case, the Supreme Court invoked its powers under Article 142, and directed the release of AG Perarivalan, who was convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

(3) While exercising review jurisdiction, in a judgment authored by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, the Supreme Court enhanced the sentence awarded to Navjot Singh Sidhu in a 1988 road-rage incident, and directed him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 1 year.

(4) Justice S. Ravindra Bhat and Justice C.T.Ravikumar authored 2 judgments commuting the death penalty awarded to convicts.

(5) On the arbitration front, a Bench comprising of Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India, Justice Surya Kant and Justice A.S. Bopanna referred the issue pertaining to the "group of companies" doctrine to a larger bench. Further, Justice Sanjiv Khanna authored a judgment expounding the concept of "seat" in arbitration proceedings, and another elucidating the difference between a commissioner and an arbitrator. Justice Gavai authored a judgment declaring a Kerala State Act (which annulled arbitral awards) as unconstitutional, and also decided the issue of the power of the arbitral tribunal to grant pendente lite interest.

All the Supreme Court Reportable Judgments of May 2022 have been summarized in a searchable PDF available with this article. The searchable PDF is a detailed Table covering all Reportable Judgments, arranged Judge-wise, including the ratio, Bench strength, Judgment date and name, with all Judgments hyperlinked for easy access to the reader. It is also clarified that the statistical study and searchable PDF are restricted only to "Reportable Judgments", excluding Daily Orders, Non-Reportable Judgments / Orders, and Review Orders.

The searchable PDF for May 2022 can be accessed with this article.

Authored & Compiled by

MS. VIDHI THAKER AND MR. PRASTUT DALVI

(Advocates, Supreme Court of India)