The Supreme Court will on Thursday deliver its verdict on a petition seeking reconsideration of its 2018 judgment which held that the stay granted by a lower court or high court in civil and criminal cases will automatically expire after six months unless extended specifically.
On December 13, 2023, A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had reserved its judgement after hearing all the concerned parties.
Besides the CJI, justices A S Oka, JB Pardiwala, Pankaj Mithal and Manoj Misra are on the bench.
During the hearing the bench observed that “There are two problems. One, the automatic vacation of stay prejudices the litigant irrespective of the conduct of that litigant. Because there are circumstances over which a litigant has no control.
“Second, the vacation of an order of stay is also a judicial act. It is not an administrative act. So, by directing that the stay will stand vacated without application of mind, a judicial order is enforced as a result of which the stay is effected without application of mind,” the bench added.
Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, who appeared for the High Court Bar Association of Allahabad,had said the mechanism of automatic vacation of stay could interfere with the power of the high courts under Article 226 of the Constitution and may be seen as “judicial legislation”. He said the autonomy of high courts needed to be upheld.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, had concurred with Dwivedi and said the judicial discretion of high courts cannot be curtailed by a “judicial mandamus or a continuing mandamus”.
The top court had on December 1 last year referred to a five-judge bench its 2018 judgement for reconsideration.