Supreme Court: Order XX of CPC Dealing with time limit for Pronouncing Judgment Is Not Applicable to High Courts

Supreme Court: Order XX of CPC Dealing with time limit for Pronouncing Judgment Is Not Applicable to High Courts

The Supreme Court of India (SC) stated that if there is a 6-month gap between reserving a judgment and delivering it, then in that case either party can move an application before the High Court (HC) Chief Justice, who may then decide that the matter be heard afresh.

A Bench comprising of Justices Rohinton Nariman and BR Gavai stated in the case of SJVNL (Appellants) v. M/s CCC HIM JV(Respondents) stated that Order XX of Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) which prescribes the time limit for Courts to pronounce judgments will not apply to High Courts (HC).

The Bench added, "A reading of our judgment in Anil Rai v. State of Bihar [(2001) 7 SCC 318] and, para 9 in particular, makes it clear that Order 20 of the CPC does not apply to the High Court."

The Top Court passed the said order while hearing an appeal filed against a judgment of a Division Bench of the Himachal Pradesh HC that had on 29 December 2020 set aside a judgment of the single-judge on the ground that there was delay of nine months by the single-judge in delivering the judgment.

On 24 December 2019, the single-judge had concluded the hearing and reserved its verdict and on 30 September 2020, the judgment was delivered. The Division Bench had placed reliance on Order XX of CPC to set aside the verdict of the single-judge.

Order XX states that a Court after the case has been heard, shall pronounce judgment in an open court, either at once or as soon thereafter as may be practicable.

The Order of CPC further reads that in a case where the judgment is not pronounced at once, the Court shall make all endeavors to pronounce the judgment within 30 days from the date on which the hearing of the case was concluded.

The Order further provides that where it is not practicable to do so due to any exceptional and extraordinary circumstances of the case, the Court shall fix a future day for the pronouncement of the judgment. Such day shall not ordinarily be a day beyond 60 days from the date on which the hearing of the case was concluded.

The Apex Court relied in the case of Anil Rai (supra) to hold that Order XX of the CPC does not apply to the HC. The SC added that "In fact, para 10 then goes on to lay down a series of guidelines which ought to be imposed for the High Court in which, inter alia, it is mentioned that only after six months hiatus between reserving a judgment and delivering it, either party can move an application to the Chief Justice of the High Court, who may then decide that the matter be heard afresh."

The Court further added that no such application was moved in the present case. Hence, the Apex Court has set aside the judgment of the Division Bench of the HC and remanded the matter back to the Division Bench to be heard afresh and decided on merits.