Supreme Court deprecates HCs not delivering judgment for year

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday deprecated the High Courts not delivering judgment for about a year after the reserving the matter for it and some High Court pronouncing the final order without reasoned judgment, depriving the aggrieved party of the opportunity to seek further judicial redressal.

Expressing shock and surprise over the Allahabad High Court not delivering judgment even after reserving for it one year ago, a bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra said such practices made litigants lose faith in the judicial process defeating the ends of justice.

Reiterating the principles laid down by this court in Anil Rai Vs State of Bihar (2001), the court directed the Registrar General of each High Court to furnish to the Chief Justice of the High Court a list of cases where the judgment reserved is not pronounced within the remaining period of that month and keep on repeating the same for three months.

"If the judgment is not delivered within three months, the Registrar General shall place the matters before the Chief Justice for orders and the Chief Justice shall bring it to the notice of the concerned bench for pronouncing the order within two weeks thereafter, failing which the matter be assigned to another bench," the court said.

The court said some High Courts have adopted practice of pronouncing the final order without reasoned judgment, which is not delivered for substantial length of time depriving the aggrieved party of the opportunity to seek further judicial redressal.

On a plea filed by Ravindra Pratap Shahi, the bench said "It is extremely shocking and surprising that the judgment was not delivered for almost a year from the date when the appeal was heard."

The bench said, this court is repeatedly confronted with similar matters wherein proceedings are kept pending in the High Court for more than three months, in some cases for more than six months or years wherein judgments are not delivered after hearing the matter.

"In most of the High Courts, there is no mechanism where the litigant can approach the concerned bench or the Chief Justice bringing to its notice the delay in delivery of judgment. In such situation, the litigant loses his faith in the judicial process defeating the ends of justice," the bench said.

In the present case, the court sought a report from the Registrar General of the High Court, which supported the averments that the criminal appeal pending before the High Court was heard and reserved for orders on December 24, 2021, but the judgment was not delivered, and it was directed to be relisted before the regular bench.