Updated on Sunday, November 16, 2008, 00:00 IST

New Delhi, Nov 16: The Supreme Court has held that High Courts cannot pass any judgement without giving detailed reasons and discussion about merits of a case.

"Out of the 14 pages of the judgement as appearing in the paper book except the 'quoted above' there is no discussion about the merits of the case. This certainly is not an appropriate way to deal with a criminal appeal," a bench of Justices Arijit Pasayat and Mukundakam Sharma observed.

The bench passed the observation while upholding an appeal filed by S Raghu Ramaiah, a state government employee, challenging the dismissal of his appeal by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in a corruption case.

In the said the judgement, the High Court made only a single observation, "After carefully going through the evidence placed by the prosecution and the judgement of the court below. I find no ground to interfere with the conviction and sentence imposed by the court below."

The High Court had passed the terse observation in the judgement without specifying any detailed reasons, on account of which Ramaiah filed the SLP in the apex court.

Upholding the employee's plea, the apex court remitted the matter to the High Court for fresh consideration.

Bureau Report