Larger benches, fewer judgments: Justice Sharma’s writing rate falls with bench size

Across three tiers of Supreme Court benches, Manoj Kumar Sharma shows a declining rate of authored judgments as bench size increases. The chart compares his authorship rate (yellow) with the median authorship rate of 10 other justices serving during the same period (blue). In all three tiers, Sharma ranks below the median, with authorship falling from 36 percent in division benches to 20 percent in full benches and 17 percent in extended full benches.

This analysis is limited to judgments published in the Nepal Kanoon Patrika (NKP). Decisions of the Constitutional Bench are excluded.
Data covers judgments published between mid-April 2019 and mid-August 2025. The median is calculated from judgments authored by justices who consistently published NKP decisions during this period: Bishowambhar Prasad Shrestha, Ishwar Prasad Khatiwada, Anand Mohan Bhattarai, Prakash Man Singh Raut, Sapana Pradhan Malla, Hari Prasad Phuyal, Anil Kumar Sinha, Kumar Regmi, Sushmalata Mathema, and Prakash Kumar Dhungana.
Chart: Tufan Neupane Source: Kantipur analysis of decisions published in the Nepal Kanun Patrika. Download imageCreated with Datawrapper