High Courts To Pronounce Reasoned Judgments In 3 Months; Pass Bail Orders In One Day: Supreme Court

**Apex Court Sets Timelines For HCs**

The Supreme Court, exercising its powers under Article 142 of the Constitution, has issued guidelines to ensure High Courts pronounce reserved judgments within a fixed timeframe. A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant directed that reasoned judgments be delivered within three months of being reserved. For matters involving personal liberty, such as bail applications, orders should ideally be passed by the next day, and communicated to jail authorities so an undertrial can be released the same day or at most the next day.

Where a judgment is not pronounced within three months, the Registrar General must place the matter before the Chief Justice of the High Court, who may grant an additional two weeks. If delay persists, the case is to be allocated to another bench. High Courts have also been asked to update their websites so that an SMS is sent to concerned persons when a reasoned order is uploaded, and to reflect the dates of reserving, pronouncing and uploading judgments for transparency.

**Why This Matters For Businesses**

The directions, though framed around criminal and personal liberty matters, signal a broader push for judicial accountability that will be watched closely by litigants in commercial, tax and regulatory disputes. Prolonged waits for reserved judgments in High Courts have long affected businesses awaiting clarity on writ petitions, tax appeals and contractual disputes. Greater transparency on reservation and pronouncement dates could improve predictability in litigation timelines and compliance planning. The court clarified its directions were not an aspersion on any judge or court, noting that judges work beyond regular hours.

**Background And What To Watch**

The matter arose from a writ petition by convicts whose criminal appeals were heard by a Division Bench of the Jharkhand High Court but whose judgments remained pending for years. The Supreme Court earlier sought reports from all High Cou…