SC sets three-month deadline on High Courts to pronounce judgment in a case

The Supreme Court on Friday (May 29, 2026) set a three-month deadline on High Courts for pronouncement of judgment in a case.

A Bench headed by Surya Kanta said this is three months from the date of reservation of the case for judgment.

There are no specific timelines within which judges have to deliver judgments. The convention is that the judiciary ought to pronounce judgments within a reasonable time, from two to six months, of reserving cases.

However, judges, including in the Supreme Court and the High Courts, have in practice reserved judgments for well over a year before delivering them.

In the order, the Bench held that the bail orders must be ideally pronounced the next day, and communicated to the jail the same day. The Court also ordered for the undertrials to be released the same day or the next day at the latest after getting bail.

The operative part of a judgment must be announced in Court and reasons uploaded in a week, and the High Court websites must reflect the date of reservation of the judgment, the Court added.

“The case would be allocated to another Bench if the binding guidelines are not followed by the Bench in question. The copies of the Supreme Court judgment must be placed before the Chief Justices of High Courts,” the Court said in its statement.