Supreme Court said that stay orders of trial court and high court cannot be canceled automatically.
New Delhi:
The Supreme Court today said stay orders given by a trial court or a high court in civil and criminal cases cannot be automatically canceled after six months.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud did not agree with its 2018 judgment which had said stay orders from lower courts should be automatically vacated unless they are specifically extended. .
Laying down guidelines, the judgment also said that constitutional courts, the Supreme Court and high courts should refrain from fixing deadlines for disposal of cases and this can be done only in exceptional circumstances.
The bench delivered two separate but unanimous verdicts.
Justice AS Oka said, “Constitutional courts should not fix any timeline for deciding cases as ground level issues are known only to the respective courts and such orders can be passed only in exceptional circumstances.”
Justice Oka, who wrote the judgment for himself, the CJI and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Mishra, said, “The stay order cannot automatically lapse.”
Justice Pankaj Mithal wrote a separate but concurring judgment in the case.
On December 13, 2023, the apex court had reserved its decision in the matter after hearing senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and other lawyers appearing for the High Court Bar Association of Allahabad on this issue.
On December 1 last year, the apex court had referred its 2018 verdict to a five-judge bench for reconsideration.
The previous judgment had said that a stay granted by a trial court or a high court in civil and criminal cases would automatically lapse after six months unless specifically extended.
In its 2018 judgment in the case of Director of Asian Resurfacing Off Road Agency P Ltd vs CBI, a three-judge bench had said that interim orders of stay granted by courts, including high courts, unless they are specifically extended will be automatically cancelled.
As a result, no suit or proceeding can be stayed after six months. However, the top court had later clarified that the decision would not be implemented if a stay order was passed by it.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
