The Supreme Court on Friday ordered that a judgment must be ordinarily pronounced within three months of a case being reserved for a verdict by any High Court, with faster timelines in cases involving personal liberty [Pila Pahan@ Peela Pahan v. The State of Jharkhand].

This was one of several key directives issued by a Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant, and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipin M Pancholi to tackle persistent delays noticed in the pronouncement of judgments by several High Courts.

The directives issued by the Court today to ensure there is no unnecessary delays in pronouncing judgments include:

1. Where judgment is reserved in a matter, the judgment has to be pronounced within three months of reserving it for a verdict. Faster decisions are expected in matters involving personal liberty.

2. Bail application orders ideally should be pronounced on the same day, or at the latest within the next day if the verdict is reserved.

3. Bail orders to be promptly communicated to jail authorities, on the same day as its pronouncment.

4. Undertrial prisoners are to be released the same day of bail being granted or, at the latest by the next day.

5. The trial court must inform the concerned High Court of compliance in such matters.

6. When a judgment is pronounced, it is sufficient that the operative part of it be pronounced in open court, but the detailed judgment with reasons is to be uploaded within seven days.

7. Necessary changes to be made to the High Court website by the Chief Justice of the respective High Courts to comply with these guidelines.

8. If judgments are not pronounced within three months of it being reserved, the registrar general shall place the case before the High Court Chief Justice. The Chief Justice may then give another two weeks for the judgment's pronouncement. If this extended timeline is still not complied, the case is to be allocated to another Bench.

9. If reasons are not uploaded within 15 days from the pronouncement of operative part, then an application can be moved for the same. If they are not uploaded within 30 days, then an application can be made to withdraw the case and take it to another Bench for hearing.

10. After conclusion of arguments, the judgment reserved date shall reflect on High Court website.

The Registrar General of High Courts have been directed to place these guidelines before the Chief Justices of the respective High Courts.

As it concluded the verdict, the top court clarified,

"These directions are not an aspersion on any particular judge or court."

The Court was hearing an application complaining of delays in the upload of a High Court judgment. The application said that the Jharkhand High Court had pronounced the judgment in December 2025, but the ruling was yet to be uploaded on its website or released to the litigant's counsel.

The Court had earlier warned that such practices of delays in delivering judgments must come to an end, adding that it will issue guidelines to tackle the problem. The Court had said that such delays cannot be allowed to continue at the cost of justice.

At the time, CJI Kant, who earlier was a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, also revealed that he and his fellow judges would deliver judgments within three months after conclusion of arguments.

"In my 15 years as a High Court judge, never ever did we reserve a judgement and not deliver judgment within three months," the CJI said.

The Court had also earlier directed the Jharkhand High Court to ensure that the judgment referred to in the application is made available this week.

Before this, in November 2025, the Court had ordered High Courts to submit reports on the timelines of their judgments, including the dates when cases were reserved for verdict, when judgments were pronounced, and when they were uploaded onto their respective websites

The top court has also been monitoring compliance with its earlier order directing all High Courts to clearly record three key dates in every certified copy of their judgments - the date of reservation, the date of pronouncement and the date of uploading on the court website.

Each High Court had been asked to submit:

1. The existing mechanism by which it brings into public domain the dates of reservation, pronouncement, and uploading of judgments;

2. The details of all judgments reserved after January 31, 2025, including their dates of pronouncement and uploading up to October 31, 2025; and

3. Suggestions for standardising the format and improving disclosure practices.

[Live Coverage]