Some high court judges take too many coffee breaks, says Supreme Court

Noting that some of the high court judges were taking too many breaks, the Supreme Court has mooted the idea of a performance audit to evaluate their work in view of the complaints received about their efficiency.

“There are some judges who work very hard, but at the same time, there are judges who are unnecessarily taking coffee breaks; this break or that break…We are hearing a lot of complaints about the high court judges. This is a larger issue which needs to be looked into. What is the performance of the high court judges? What is the benchmark which should be there? How much are we spending and what’s the output? It’s high time we do a performance audit," a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice NK Singh said on Tuesday.

The Bench was hearing a petition filed by four life convicts, alleging 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 unable to claim the benefit of remission.

On Tuesday, it was informed that verdicts in all four cases have now been pronounced. While appeals were allowed in three, there was a difference of opinion in the fourth case and the matter has been referred to a larger Bench. All the four petitioners have since been released from jail.

Shocked to know that the Jharkhand High Court has not pronounced verdicts in 67 criminal appeals after reserving its judgments, the Supreme Court had on May 5 asked all high courts to submit reports within a month on cases where judgments were reserved but not pronounced.

“We direct the Registrar General of all the High Courts to submit a report in respect of those cases where the judgments were reserved on or before 31.01.2025 and where the pronouncement of judgments is still awaited,” the Bench had said, saying, ““This cannot be allowed to happen.”

Terming the situation as “disturbing", the Bench had said it will lay down mandatory guidelines on the issue. The larger issue of HC judges not pronouncing verdicts after reserving the same will be taken up on July 21.

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