India, Sept. 5 -- Two pages, eight paragraphs and 15 sentences were not enough for the Allahabad high court to explain why six people should face a criminal trial, the Supreme Court has held, reminding judges that a judicial order cannot be reduced to a conclusion without the reasoning that leads to it and that heavy caseload cannot be an excuse for dispensing with reasons.

A bench of justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu set aside the high court's order, underlining that it failed to meet even the basic standards of a "reasoned and speaking" judicial order. The bench particularly faulted the high court for not examining the evidence against the accused even though they had not been named in the charge sheet and were brought into the tr...