Timely Upload of Reasoned Orders: Supreme Court Tightens Rules for High Courts.


22 September 2025
The Supreme Court has given new instructions to all High Courts within the country to provide greater transparency and uniformity in the way judicial orders and judgments are recorded, uttered, and brought out in the public domain.

A Bench consisting of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh issued the orders while hearing writ petitions pointing to delays in pronouncement and uploading of final judgments, even as arguments have been finalized years ago in many cases.


 

 

Through the hearing on September 22, 2025, the Court was aided by senior advocate Ms. Fauzia Shakil, who was made amicus curiae. Relying on data collected from various High Courts, she identified some discrepancies in how data on reserved and pronounced judgments is kept. Some High Courts like Kerala and Patna still have to file their reports, while in most of them, vital dates indicating the dates on which judgments were reserved are unavailable.

Being aware of the difficulty in bringing together such diverse data, the Court authorized Ms. Shakil to avail herself of the services of two young women lawyers as legal aid counsel to assist her. The Supreme Court Legal Services Committee is requested to formalize their appointment.

The Bench ordered that a standard reporting format be drawn up by the amicus curiae, which would be made binding on all High Courts. If already submitted data does not conform to this standard format, High Courts would be asked to re-submit their data accordingly within four weeks.

Significantly, the Court made it compulsory for High Courts to specifically mention three particular dates in all judgments: the date of reserving, the date of pronouncement, and the date when the judgment was uploaded on the official website. High Courts have also been requested to state whether only the operative part of a judgment was pronounced in court or whether a reasoned order was read out on the same day.

The Bench cited the recent judgment in Ratilal Jhaverbhai Parmar v. State of Gujarat (2024), wherein the Supreme Court had highlighted that if only the operative order is issued, the reasoned order is to be uploaded within five days. While appreciating that slight extensions of time may be necessary, the Court specified that delays cannot be perpetual.

The issue will now again be heard on November 10, 2025, when the reports on compliance by different High Courts are to be heard.