Believe it or not, Jharkhand High Court has exposed itself prompting the apex court to express surprise for leaving criminal petitions pick up rust in corridors of judiciary.

No joke this. The Supreme Court today (May 5, 2025) uttered howling words and expressed surprise that the Jharkhand High Court has not pronounced verdicts in 67 criminal appeals after reserving judgement.

The SC also asked Jharkhand High Court among all High Courts to submit report in a month on cases where judgements are pending.

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and N. Kotiswar Singh termed the development as "disturbing", and said it will lower down some mandatory guidelines on the issue.

"This cannot be allowed to happen," the Bench said, as it sought reports from all the High Courts in four weeks on cases where judgement has been reserved on or before January 31, 2025 but verdict has not been pronounced till date,reports PTI.

Notably, the top court passed the directions after perusing the report filed by Registrar General of the Jharkhand High Court stating that it is in possession of 56 criminal appeals heard by division bench from January, 2022 till December, 2024. But the verdict has not been pronounced despite order being reserved, said the Jharkhand High Court Registrar General in its report.

More, the same report noted that before the single bench judge, judgement has not been pronounced in 11 criminal appeals despite order being reserved.

The top court was hearing a plea of four life convicts, who have approached through advocate Fauzia Shakil, claiming that the Jharkhand High Court had reserved orders on their appeals against conviction in 2022 but did not pronounce verdicts due to which they were not able to claim the benefit of remission.