On December 13, 2023, the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court (SC) reserved its judgment on a plea seeking reconsideration of its 2018 judgment, Asian Resurfacing of Road Agency P. Ltd. Director vs. Central Bureau of Investigation. As per this judgment, the interim orders of stay granted by the High courts or any other lower courts in a civil and criminal trial will automatically expire after six months unless extended specifically. The matter was heard by a five-judge constitution bench consisting of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice Pankaj Mithal, Justice Abhay S. Oka, Justice Manoj Misra, and Justice JB Pardiwala.
While hearing the case, the SC addressed two problems, “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.” During the proceedings, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi appearing for the High Court Bar Association of Allahabad, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and other lawyers advanced their arguments before the bench.
Earlier on December 01, 2023, a three-judge bench of the SC, after expressing reservations about the dictum concerning automatic stay vacation, referred Asian Resurfacing to a larger bench (five-judge bench). On November 03 this year, the Allahabad High Court delivered the judgment where ten questions were framed for the deliberation of the SC about the dictum of automatic vacation of stay. The SC bench then observed that in some cases the automatic vacation of stay can result in miscarriage of justice. After hearing the arguments from both sides on December 13, the SC bench reserved the verdict.