Taking serious note of delays in uploading court verdicts, the Supreme Court on Thursday directed all High Courts across the country to provide details of judgments delivered since January 1, 2024, along with the dates they were made available online.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order while hearing a petition alleging inordinate delays in pronouncing reserved judgments. The court said the information must be submitted by the Registrar Generals of all High Courts by July 21, 2025.
“In continuation of our May 13, 2025 order, the Registrar Generals of all High Courts are directed to submit a report specifying the dates of pronouncement of judgments post January 1, 2024, and the respective dates they were uploaded. This data, covering judgments until May 31, 2025, is to be furnished before the next hearing,” the court said.
The directive comes amidst rising complaints about High Court judges taking “unnecessary breaks” and significant delays between pronouncing judgments and uploading them. On May 13, the Supreme Court had also called for performance audits of High Court judges and questioned the efficiency of the judicial system.
The present case stems from a plea filed by four individuals who were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Jharkhand. They informed the apex court that the Jharkhand High Court had reserved judgment in 2022 but failed to pronounce it for nearly three years. Following the Supreme Court’s intervention, the High Court eventually delivered judgments on May 5 and 6, acquitting three of the appellants while the fourth case resulted in a split verdict.
Advocate Fauzia Shakil, appearing for the petitioners, confirmed that after the split verdict, the matter was placed before the High Court Chief Justice and her client was granted bail.
The top court stressed that the issue “goes to the root of the criminal justice system” and affects public trust. It also tagged the matter with a similar petition concerning delayed judgment uploads by the Allahabad High Court.
“It appears to us that the concerns raised in these cases require deeper analysis and may necessitate mandatory guidelines by this court,” the bench remarked. It further emphasized the need to ensure that undertrials and convicts are not forced to lose faith in the justice delivery system due to such procedural lapses.
The court said it would also consider laying down mechanisms to enforce the timeline for pronouncing and uploading judgments, previously mandated by the apex court.
The matter has been posted for further hearing in July, and the court registry has been tasked with compiling the data from High Courts across the country.
