One of the most significant and time-consuming tasks done by a Judge is the authoring of a judgement. Brevity, simplicity and clarity are the hallmarks of a good judgement. The majority of the Judge's time is spent writing judgments. With accumulating arrears and a growing number of cases on the daily cause list, the strain of judgement writing might become insufferable at times. By drafting succinct opinions, the judges, based on their experience, discover ways to alleviate this strain. The verdict, however, should serve the legal requirements without jeopardising the quality. 

There are a placenta of cases where the judgements have been as lengthy as 700 pages long in the case of the judgement in the Kesavananda Bharati case [1973], which established the Basic Structure Doctrine, was difficult to understand. The SP Gupta case [1981] was 830 pages long. The list is not exhaustive. Apparently, there seems to be competition among the judges in making new records in terms of writing long judgements. The Aadhaar judgment (2018) in the Puttaswamy case had 1448 pages; the Ayodhya judgment had 1045 pages. The main purpose of judgement writing is to convey the interpretation as clearly as possible not only to people engaged in litigation, but to the common man as well. However, if the reader stops reading in the midst or has difficulty understanding, something is wrong, and the courts cannot overlook it. They have a responsibility to express their decisions effectively. Because the Supreme Court determines the nation's legal future, it has a significant responsibility to set down the law in clear language so that other courts can simply follow suit based on precedent.

In the case of Ajit Mohan vs Delhi Legislative Assembly, the bench headed by SK Kaul suggested that ‘Wren & Martin principles’ of precis writing must be adopted for clear and short judgements for the litigants to understand. The supreme court was of the view that  delay in judicial proceedings has been the bane of our country and there cannot be a refusal to part ways from old practices especially when they have outlived their purpose. It is the litigants who bear the costs of our complex and prolonged adjudicatory process.The bench said that lawyers share an equal responsibility by making time-bound arguments and supplying brief, precise synopsis of arguments and laws. Instead of limiting oral arguments, the court has become a competition to see who can debate the longest. The Court also stated that the lawyers should also finish their arguments within a short time and should avoid citing unnecessary precedents. 

The Supreme Court of India as on 01.05.2021 had 67,898 pending matters. How is the supreme court supposed to dispose of a case pending for 10 years, if the current priority proceedings go on for hours.