New Delhi: In a significant move aimed at tackling delays in the justice delivery system, the Supreme Court on Friday directed all 25 high courts across India to ordinarily pronounce judgments within three months of reserving orders.
A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant, along with Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin M Pancholi, said prolonged delays in delivering verdicts cause “irreparable loss” to litigants and undermine the constitutional right to speedy justice.
The top court laid down a structured mechanism to ensure compliance. It said that if a judgment is not delivered within three months after being reserved, the Registrar General of the concerned high court must place the matter before the Chief Justice of that high court. The Chief Justice may then grant an additional two weeks for pronouncement. If the judgment is still not delivered within that period, the case may be reassigned to another Bench.
The court also addressed delays in uploading detailed judgments after the operative portion is pronounced. It directed that if reasons are not uploaded within 15 days, parties may move an application seeking the judgment. If the order is still unavailable after 30 days, litigants can seek withdrawal of the matter and reassignment to another Bench.
Emphasising the urgency required in matters involving personal liberty, the Supreme Court framed stricter timelines for bail-related cases. It said bail applications should ideally be decided on the same day. If orders are reserved, they must be pronounced and uploaded by the next day.
The Bench further directed that bail or sentence suspension orders must be immediately communicated to jail authorities so that undertrial prisoners or convicts can be released preferably on the same day, or at the latest by the next day. Trial courts have also been asked to inform the concerned high court once compliance is completed.
The Supreme Court clarified that the directions were not targeted at any particular judge or court but were intended to streamline judicial functioning across the country.
The directions came while hearing a plea filed by four convicts belonging to Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes. They alleged that their criminal appeals, reserved by the Jharkhand High Court in 2022, remained pending without judgment for nearly two to three years. According to the petitioners, although the judgment was eventually pronounced in December 2025, the order was neither uploaded on the court website nor made available to their lawyers.
The petitioners argued that the delay violated their fundamental rights under Article 21 of the Constitution, including the right to life, personal liberty and speedy trial.
During the hearing, CJI Surya Kant remarked that in his 15 years as a High Court judge, he had never reserved a judgment beyond three months.
The Supreme Court also directed that once arguments conclude, the “judgment reserved” status must be reflected on the respective high court websites. It added that while only the operative part of a judgment needs to be pronounced in open court, the detailed judgment containing reasons should ordinarily be uploaded within seven days.
Chief Justices of all high courts have been instructed to ensure necessary changes are made to court websites and administrative systems to implement the new guidelines.
