CJI Lalit Unveils 'KHOJ' Dataset At Ninth Convocation Of NLU Odisha

The dataset, which is the first of its kind in India, captures the personal, educational and professional background details across 43 variables of 1,708 High Court Judges appointed between 6^th October 1993 (inception of the collegium) and 31^st May 2021. It has 27 files which contain data of the Judges on various aspects.

The followings are the primary variables basing upon which data are collected.

• Background Information - There are 7 variables centered around their names, place of birth, date of birth, gender etc.
• Education related information - There are 10 variables through which dataset has captured their educational background, ranging from schooling, university and higher education. Though it attempted to capture all the publicly available information, this section is not exhaustive and there may be data points that are not available in the public domain.

• Experience before Judicial Appointments - There are 10 variables capturing the professional experiences of judges, including litigation and administrative experience, if they were empanelled by PSUs, banks, statutory bodies or private companies.
• Information related to Judicial Appointment(s) - There are 13 variables centred around their appointments, transfers from High Courts, appointments in the Supreme Court etc.

While introducing the dataset, Prof. (Dr.) Rangin Pallav Tripathy, Dean (Academics), NLUO said,

"This dataset opens pathways for researcher who are looking to probe deeper or wider into the composition of the High Courts and those who want to undertake jurimetrics studies which explore linkages between judicial behaviour and background of judges."

The dataset is the result of a joint effort over 15 months involving more than 30 students and 10 professionals who volunteered their time and efforts. This was a collaboration between NLUO's Centre for Public Policy, Law and Good Governance, Agami and Civic Data Lab. It started with the 'Summer of Data 2021' program, where students from across the country became the original data creators using official and publicly accessible data sources.

Prof. Tripathy also announced that the dataset is now openly and freely available on the 'Justice Hub' (available here) platform.