India, Nov. 27 -- Days ahead of being sworn in as the Chief Justice of India (CJI), Justice Surya Kant called for high courts to make public the time judges take to pronounce reserved verdicts and more. The trigger was a case from Jharkhand, where four life convicts - two from Scheduled Tribes and two from OBC communities - had waited two to three years after their criminal appeals were heard, with final judgments left in limbo.

These observations are not the first time the top court has raised alarms over reserved judgments in Jharkhand. Expressing "shock" at rising backlogs of reserved cases, it had urged judges to use sanctioned leave to clear criminal and civil appeals and pressed for regular public reporting on matters involving dea...