New Delhi: Expressing concern over delays in delivering judgments, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed high court judges to pronounce verdicts within three months of reserving them. If the ruling is not delivered within two weeks after the deadline, the case will be transferred to another judge.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra termed the situation “extremely shocking”, saying, “In such a situation, the litigant loses faith in the judicial process, which would harm the purpose of justice.”
Justice Mishra, writing the judgment for the bench, noted that several cases in high courts remain pending for more than three months, and in some instances even six months or years, without judgments being pronounced despite hearings being completed.
The bench also criticised the practice in some high courts of issuing final orders without providing detailed judgments for long periods, depriving the aggrieved party of the opportunity to seek further legal recourse.
Observing that there was no proper mechanism in most high courts for litigants to report delays, the court directed that if a decision is not delivered within three months, the Registrar General must place the matter before the Chief Justice of the high court.
The Chief Justice would then remind the concerned bench, and if no order is passed within the next two weeks, the case would be reassigned to another bench.
