New Delhi: To curb the habit of “hesitate and forget” among some high court judges, Supreme Court On Friday, it set a deadline of three months for the high courts to pronounce their decisions, and also said that orders in bail cases should be passed immediately.As a series of appeals against convictions in criminal cases are pending indefinitely, a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said the high courts should show extra diligence in deciding cases related to personal liberty, regular and anticipatory bail.CJI Kant said, “Bail petitions should be heard and the order should preferably be pronounced and uploaded on the same day. If it is reserved, it should be narrated the next day and uploaded on the website.”Mere prompt announcement of the order of grant of bail will no longer suffice as the Supreme Court has ordered that the jail authorities should also be informed with equal promptness so as to ensure that the undertrial prisoner/convict is released from custody immediately, preferably on the same day or certainly by the next day, unless there is a need to keep him behind bars in other cases or there is failure to furnish the bail bond.The Supreme Court asked the trial courts concerned to report compliance with the bail order to their high courts.However, the SC gave some leeway to the HC and said that if a bench is of the opinion that giving a reasoned judgment will take time in cases where the order is urgently required, then it can pronounce the operative part immediately and follow it in the next 15 days. However, it added that high courts must upload all judgments within 24 hours of the judgment being delivered.CJI Kant and Justice Bagchi said the HC registry will have to give a monthly report on the number of reserved judgments to the Chief Justice, who can confidentially inform the judges concerned about cases in which judgments were reserved for two months.If the judge or bench concerned fails to deliver the judgment in three months, the HC CJ shall request them to do so in the next two weeks, otherwise the matter may be assigned to another judge/bench for fresh hearing and speedy decision, the SC said while accepting or modifying several suggestions made by amicus curiae Fauzia Shakeel.Apart from the steps to be taken by the CJ, the Supreme Court gave freedom to the parties in such situations to file applications for transfer of their cases to some other bench. It says that every judgment should mention the date on which the judgment was reserved.