Overview

• Setting a binding protocol, a bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and Prashant Kumar Mishra fixed a three-month deadline to pronounce reserved judgments, with a two-week grace period before reassignment to another bench.
• Registrar Generals of all High Courts must provide their Chief Justices monthly lists of cases with overdue reserved judgments for three consecutive months.
• The directive arose from appeals by Ravindra Pratap Shahi after an Allahabad High Court bench reserved a judgment on December 24, 2021 and failed to deliver it for nearly a year in a criminal appeal pending since 2008.
• The Supreme Court said prolonged non-pronouncement erodes litigants’ faith, noted most High Courts lack a mechanism for parties to flag such delays, and criticised issuing final orders without timely reasoned judgments.
• Reiterating Anil Rai (2001), the court ordered circulation of its ruling to all High Courts for compliance and stressed that indefinite reservation violates the right to speedy justice.