The Supreme Court on Friday referred its judgment in Asian Resurfacing Of Road Agency v. Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) to a Constitution bench..In the 2018 judgment, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had directed that all stay orders in criminal as well as civil proceedings would be valid only for six months unless specifically extended. The Court has now expressed reservations about the same..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra acknowledged the drawbacks of prolonging stay orders, but also emphasized the need for application of judicial mind in vacating them."We have reservations in the broad formulation of the above. While there is no gainsaying in fact that prolonging of stay delays trial unduly, it needs to be factored in that the delay can also be by the inability of the court to take up the case expeditiously. Thus the principle laid down that stay shall be automatically vacated, which would mean automatic vacation of stay without application of judicial mind, would result in serious miscarriage of justice. Thus the decision in Asian Resurfacing is of three judges, we refer the case to a larger bench of 5 judges," the Court said..The Court has also requested Attorney General R Venkataramani or Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta to assist it in the matter.
The Supreme Court on Friday referred its judgment in Asian Resurfacing Of Road Agency v. Central Bureau Of Investigation (CBI) to a Constitution bench..In the 2018 judgment, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had directed that all stay orders in criminal as well as civil proceedings would be valid only for six months unless specifically extended. The Court has now expressed reservations about the same..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra acknowledged the drawbacks of prolonging stay orders, but also emphasized the need for application of judicial mind in vacating them."We have reservations in the broad formulation of the above. While there is no gainsaying in fact that prolonging of stay delays trial unduly, it needs to be factored in that the delay can also be by the inability of the court to take up the case expeditiously. Thus the principle laid down that stay shall be automatically vacated, which would mean automatic vacation of stay without application of judicial mind, would result in serious miscarriage of justice. Thus the decision in Asian Resurfacing is of three judges, we refer the case to a larger bench of 5 judges," the Court said..The Court has also requested Attorney General R Venkataramani or Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta to assist it in the matter.
