The Supreme Court on Wednesday proposed that all High Courts in the country should publicly disclose details about when judgements were reserved, pronounced and uploaded by judges, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi said that such information should be made “automated and available in the public domain” to ensure judicial transparency and accountability.

The court added that this must include cases where hearings were completed but judgements were reserved for more than six months, as well as instances where verdicts were pronounced after a delay of over six months, the legal news outlet reported.

The directive comes after the Supreme Court, in an order on May 5, directed the registrar generals of all High Courts to submit reports on cases in which judgements were reserved on or before January 31, 2025, but where pronouncement was still awaited, Live Law reported.

The court had, at the time, flagged long delays in the pronouncement of judgement as a matter of concern while hearing a petition by four persons from the Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Class communities who had been serving life sentences.

The petitioners had submitted before the court that their criminal appeals had been reserved for judgement by the Jharkhand High Court for two to three years without a verdict being pronounced.

After the matter was brought before the Supreme Court in May, the Jharkhand High Court delivered its verdict, acquitting all four persons, who had spent over a decade in Birsa Munda Central Jail.

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