Statistical Analysis Of Reportable Supreme Court Judgments In January 2023

In January, 2023, the Supreme Court delivered 84 Reportable Judgments in various fields of law. Over the span of 21 working days in this month, the Supreme Court passed 12,367 Orders, which is an average of ~588 Orders per working day. This month also witnessed 3 Judgments pronounced by Constitution Benches. The first pertaining to the validity of demonetization [4:1]; the second relating to the vicarious liability of the Government for statements made by Ministers, and its interplay with Article 19 [4:1]; and the third pertaining to a modification of the 2018 Supreme Court Judgment on living wills / euthanasia.Overview of Judge-wise Statistics – The overview of Reportable Judgments delivered by each Hon’ble Judge over the month of January 2023, is as under :Name of the Hon’ble JudgeNo. of Reportable Judgments (per Hon’ble Judge)Justice M.R. Shah41Justice B.V. Nagarathna 7Justice B.R. Gavai5Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Justice S. Ravindra BhatJustice Bela M Trivedi4Justice K.M. Joseph, Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, Justice Sanjiv Khanna,Justice M.M. Sundresh,Justice P.S. Narasimha2Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice Surya Kant, Justice Aniruddha Bose,Justice V. Ramasubramanian, Justice A.S. Bopanna, Justice Vikram Nath, Justice C.T. Ravikumar,Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia, Justice Dipankar Dutta1Total84Statistics based on outcome of proceedings – Out of the 84 Reportable Judgments, 53 (i.e. 63.09%) were cases where the Petition / Appeal was allowed; in 23 cases, the Petition / Appeal was dismissed (i.e. 27.38%). The Supreme Court disposed of 3 Petitions / Appeals with directions (i.e. 3.57%); and, partly allowed 2 Petitions / Appeals (i.e. 2.38%). However, 3 judgments (arising out of 2 cases) still remain pending (i.e. 3.57%), where the Reportable Judgment was delivered, and the proceedings have been placed on another date, for further consideration. The Pie Chart of the outcome of proceedings is as under:Subject-wise distribution of Reportable Judgments – In January 2023, out of 84 Reportable Judgments, 21 were authored in the field of Land Acquisition; notably, all 21 being authored by Justice M.R.Shah. This was followed by 16 Judgments being authored in the field of Criminal Law, and 10 judgments in Civil Law. The subject-wise distribution of Reportable Judgments for January, 2023 is as under:Land Acquisition21Criminal Law16Civil Law10Service Law7Indirect Tax5Constitutional Law7Direct Tax4SARFAESI2Company Law2Arbitration2Tender Matters1Provident Fund1Consumer Law1Environment Law1IBC1Public Law3Total 84Land Acquisition Matters:Out of the 21 Land Acquisition Judgments, 19 (i.e. 90.47%) filed by the land acquiring authority were allowed, 1 filed by the beneficiary of the land was dismissed (i.e. 4.76%); and 1 filed by the landowner was disposed of, with certain observations made with respect to the Judgment of the High Court. (i.e. 4.76%)Criminal Law:Out of the 16 criminal law judgments, 12 arose out of criminal appeals filed by the Accused person/s against their conviction. Out of the said 12 cases, in 7 cases, the Supreme Court acquitted the Accused person/s [i.e. 58.33%]; in 4 cases, the Court upheld the conviction. [i.e. 33.33%]; and in 1 case [i.e. 8.33%], the Court modified the conviction of the Accused from one u/S. 302 I.P.C., to one u/S. 304 Part I.Highlights of the Reportable Judgments for January 2023:Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Dr. D.Y. Chandrachud authored 4 Reportable Judgments in this month. Out of these, 1 pertained to the scope of judicial review over government contracts; another judgment pertained to the non-applicability of Section 29A of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act, 1996 to international commercial arbitrations. Justice Chandrachud also authored a Judgment deciding the issue of prohibition of carrying outside food and beverages into cinema halls. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul delivered a Judgment setting aside the condition of victim compensation for grant of anticipatory bail. It was held that victim compensation is simultaneous with the final view taken in respect of the alleged offence, i.e., whether it was so committed or not. The Court, while upholding the grant of anticipatory bail to the Accused, set aside the condition of payment of interim victim compensation at the bail stage. Justice K.M. Joseph, who presided over a Constitution Bench in January, delivered 2 Reportable Judgments, one of which was delivered in the Constitution Bench on the issue relating to living wills. The other Reportable Judgment was delivered while presiding over a Division Bench, in the context of civil law, with respect to transfer of property under a Release Deed, and the applicability of the doctrine of estoppel.Justice M.R. Shah delivered 41 Reportable Judgments, of which 21 were in the field of land acquisition. Justice Shah also delivered 4 Judgments in the field of Tax law, and 3 Judgments in the field of Criminal law. Justice Shah also authored 1 Judgment in Arbitration law, deciding the...

Statistical Analysis Of Reportable Supreme Court Judgments In January 2023

Vidhi Thaker and Prastut Dalvi

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