Stay orders of HCs won’t lapse automatically: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday said it could not unnecessarily fiddle with wellthoughtout interim orders of High Courts staying criminal and civil proceedings. A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud said the top court had no power whatsoever to declare that a stay order passed by a High Court after due application of mind would automatically expire within six months.

The fivejudge Bench was deciding a reference made to it about the correctness of a 2018 judgment in Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency Vs CBI.

A threejudge Bench, in 2018, had held that interim but openended stay orders would get vacated by default after six months unless their period of operation was extended periodically.

“Putting such constraints on the power of the High Court will also amount to making a dent on the jurisdiction of the High Courts under Article 226 of the Constitution, which is an essential feature that forms part of the basic structure of the Constitution,” Justice A.S. Oka, who authored the lead opinion, held.

In his concurring opinion, Justice Pankaj Mithal, an Associate Judge on the Bench, agreed that a “reasoned stay order, if not specified to be time bound, would remain in operation till there is a decision in the main matter or until and unless an application is moved for vacation and a speaking order is passed”.

The Bench further clarified that the top court cannot “normally” fix timebound schedules for High Courts or trial courts to dispose of pending cases. The reasons for pendency may vary from court to court.

“The situation at the grassroots level is better known to the judges of the courts concerned. Orders fixing the outer limit for the disposal of cases should be passed only in exceptional circumstances to meet extraordinary situations,” it held.

The judgment made it plain that the Supreme Court had no absolute power of hegemony over the High Courts. The Bench highlighted that the top court’s seemingly invincible power under Article 142 of the Constitution to do “complete justice” did not extend to excessive interference in orders passed by High Courts after due consideration.