Pronouncing final orders without reasoned judgment has to be stopped: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday deprecated the practice of courts pronouncing only the operative portion of the judgment without releasing a reasoned judgment [Indrajeet Yadav v. Santosh Singh and Another]..A Division Bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna was of the view that such a practice of pronouncing the final orders without a reasoned judgment has to be stopped and discouraged."Despite the strong observations made by this Court as far as back in the year 1984 and thereafter repeatedly reiterated, still the practice of pronouncing only the operative portion of the judgment without a reasoned judgment and to pass a reasoned judgment subsequently has been continued. Such a practice of pronouncing the final orders without a reasoned judgment has to be stopped and discouraged," the Court said. The Bench was hearing an appeal challenging an order of the Allahabad High Court acquitting the respondent-accused of murder charges..The appellants argued that the contentions before the High Court concluded on March 30, 2019, and on that very day, the High Court allowed the appeal and only pronounced the operative portion of the acquittal order, while the reasoned order was pronounced after a period of approximately five months.Reliance was placed on the decisions of the Supreme Court Court in Balaji Baliram Mupade and Another v. State of Maharashtra (2001) and State of Punjab and Others v. Jagdev Singh Talwandi (1984), by which such a practice of pronouncing final orders without reasoned judgments had been deprecated.The top court thus found the High Court's order unsustainable to the extent of the delay and set it aside.The appeals were remanded to the High Court to for a fresh decision in accordance with law and on its own merits, within six months. The judgment added that the accused need not surrender during the pendency of the appeals before the High Court and be treated as being released on bail till final outcome of the appeals. "If the conviction is sustained the accused shall surrender within a period of two weeks from the date of the pronouncement of the judgment," the Bench stated. .[Read Judgment]