India, March 17 -- The Supreme Court has sought responses from high courts within 10 days on draft guidelines to ensure the timely pronouncement of high court and trial court judgments, as part of systemic reforms aimed at accountability and transparency in judicial functioning.

"These guidelines are only to enhance accountability in our system and strengthen the judicial institution," said a bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Monday as it heard a case concerning reserved judgments of appeals from life convicts that have been pending for years in the Jharkhand high court.

The bench decided to lay down guidelines for timely justice after it sought data from all high courts and found the trend was no...