The Supreme Court in the case Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency P. Ltd. Director V. Central Bureau of Investigation Director and connected matters observed and has directed automatic vacation of stay granted by any court including High Courts in civil or criminal proceedings after 6 months which requires serious consideration as it is creating problems.
The Supreme Court in the case observed and has directed in March 2018 that where stay against the proceedings of the civil or the criminal trial is operating, the same will come to an end on expiry of six months unless there is an exceptional case by a speaking order wherein such stay is extended. Thus, the same was reiterated by the Supreme Court in October in the year 2020.
The counsel, Sanpreet Singh Ajmani, AOR, submitted before the bench comprising of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Prakash Kumar Mishra that it has been admitted by the High Court the matter and has stayed the execution proceedings of the court below, due to automatic vacation of stay, thus, the lower court proceeded with auctioning of the property of the judgement debtor. The Apex Cour tin the case observed and has granted relief to the appellant by ordering status quo.
The bench of Justice Gavai in the case informed the Attorney General R. Venkataramani ‘it requires consideration, because this being the creation of lot of problems, wherein the AG agreed with the court and stated that I will look into this, as far as the criminal matters are concerned and we need to collect data on how it really works.
The bench of Justice Gavai remarked that Even in Civil Matter.’
The counsel appearing before the court with regards to the other connection matter brough up an appeal where the High Court had stayed proceedings in a criminal matter and subsequently, the trial court had issued a warrant against the appellant with regards to the automatic stay vacation.
The court granted an Interim protection to the appellant in this matter as well.
The bench of Justice Mishra remarked that this is happening everywhere, some (the lower courts) write to the High Court wherein seeking directions, some pass recall orders on their own without hearing the other side
The Supreme court in the case observed and has clarified that the six months cap on interim stay orders will not be application to Supreme Court orders. Thus, if the interim order granted by the Supreme Court is not vacated and the same continues beyond a period of 6 months by reason of pendency of the appeal and it cannot be said that the interim order would automatically stand vacated.
The counsel, AOR Sanpreet Singh Ajmani appeared for the applicant.