Shocked to learn that a judge of the Madras High Court is yet to deliver a judgment reserved six months ago, Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari on Wednesday said no verdict should remain reserved for more than two months.
Presiding over the first Division Bench along with Justice N. Mala, the Chief Justice was hearing a case related to Indian Red Cross Society when he was told that, in a connected case, another judge had reserved his verdict six months ago.
"Six months ago?" the Chief Justice exclaimed and said that no judgment should remain reserved beyond two months. He said such a long delay in pronouncing verdicts would cause trouble to lawyers and litigants. Even the judges cannot remember any of the arguments.
"As far as possible, judgments must be dictated then and there in the open court. It is only in cases which require some amount of research or a detailed consideration of the issue that judgments should be reserved," the Chief Justice added.
He pointed out that the Supreme Court had also disapproved of long delay in delivering verdicts and that some High Courts followed the practice of listing the case before some other judge if a particular judge failed to deliver the verdict within two months.
He told the Bar that he would take up the issue on the administrative side and consider issuing a circular in this regard.
