The Verdictum: Justice Vikramajit Sen

Justice Vikramajit Sen was elevated to the Supreme Court on December 24, 2012. His tenure at the apex court lasted a little over three years, or 1101 days, before he became the latest Supreme Court judge to retire, on December 30 of last year..Justice Sen graduated from St. Stephen’s College with Honours in History. He went on to pursue an LL.B degree from Faculty of Laws, Delhi University. Although he practised in all courts in Delhi, he made a name for himself at the Delhi High Court. He would make the shift from the Bar to the Bench in 1999, when he was appointed as an additional judge of the Delhi High Court. He was then made a permanent judge the following year..In 2011, he was transferred to the Karnataka High Court, where he served as Acting Chief Justice. Later that year, he assumed office as Chief Justice of the High Court..He was also part of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunals that declared the Deendar Anjuman and the LTTE as unlawful associations. Later, as an apex court judge, he would be part of a 3-member panel constituted by Vice-President of India Hamid Ansari to probe the allegations of sexual harassment levelled against a sitting Madhya Pradesh High Court judge..Post-retirement, he was in contention for the post of Lokayukta of Karnataka, but subsequently withdrew his name. (Read the full interview of Vikramajit Sen).Month-wise distribution of rulings .During his tenure as a Supreme Court judge, Justice Sen was involved in passing 189 orders and judgments, having authored an impressive 76 of these. The months of February and September were his most productive, with 22 rulings each. The months preceding the summer vacations – March, April and May – were his least productive months, with 13, 11 and 6 rulings respectively..Day-wise productivity.Justice Sen’s average daily productivity hovered around 0.2 rulings per day. That figure dipped to as low as 0.06 in May and 0.12 and 0.14 in April and March respectively. His productivity was maximum during the months of February, September and August..Year-wise distribution of rulings.2015, the year in which he retired, was Justice Sen’s most productive year, in which he passed 92 rulings. His least productive year was 2013, where he was involved in a mere 33 judgments and orders..YearNo. of rulings201333201464201592TOTAL189.Bench-wise distribution of rulings.Justice Sen delivered a fourth of his rulings (47) sitting with Justice Shiva Kirti Singh. Not far behind is Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, with whom he sat with for 32 rulings. He has also appeared on the same bench as 10 other sitting judges of the apex court. Further, he was part of a 3-judge bench 23 times and part of a Constitution bench twice..Case-type distribution.More than 68% of the matters that came before Justice Sen were civil appeals. He also adjudicated on 42 criminal appeals and 6 civil writ petitions..Notable judgments.Justice Sen was known for his use of flowery language in judgments. In Sundeep Kumar Bafna v. State of Maharashtra, he begins, “A neat legal nodus of ubiquitous manifestation and gravity has arisen before us…”.He adjudicated on an aspect of the JBT Teachers Recruitment Scam in Haryana, in Vidya Dhar & Ors. v. Multi Screen Media Pvt. Ltd. In that case, the convicted politicians in the scam approached the Supreme Court to stay the broadcast of a TV programme which contained a re-enactment of the scam. However, a 3-judge bench headed by then Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir saw no reason to grant an injunction..In Faculty Association of AIIMS v. Union of India, he was part of a Constitution bench that looked into whether reservation was inapplicable to specialty and super-specialty faculty posts in the premier medical college. Relying heavily on Indira Sawhney, the bench ultimately decided that reservation was not advisable in technical posts where merit alone counts..He was also part of the bench that upheld the Kerala High Court’s conviction of CPI(M) leader MV Jayarajan for making derogatory remarks against members of the judiciary..Most recently, he also authored the judgment in Kerala Bar Hotels Association v. State of Kerala, dismissing challenges to the state’s policy of banning liquor in all hotels except 4 and 5 star ones.