SC to hear matter related to effect of stay orders on trials' pace on Dec 9

SC while dealing with a petition filed by CBI in November 2021, had flagged the issue of stay orders granted by the appellate courts and the pace of trials getting adversely affected

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a suo motu matter related to adverse effect of stay orders granted by the appellate courts on the pace of trials.

As per the cause list of December 9 uploaded on the apex court website, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar is slated to hear a matter titled "In Re: Adverse effect of stay orders granted by appellate courts on the pace of trials, despite parameters for grant of such stays, laid down by this court".

The apex court, while dealing with a petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in November 2021, had flagged the issue of stay orders granted by the appellate courts and the pace of trial getting adversely affected.

"The second aspect with which we find ourselves concerned is the stay orders granted by the appellate courts and thus the pace of trial getting adversely affected, despite this Court having laid down parameters for grant of such stays," the top court had said in its November 8, 2021 order.

It had said this aspect was needed to be addressed judicially by registering an appropriate petition as a public interest petition with notice sent to the concerned states and the high courts.

"We thus deem it appropriate that this aspect should be placed before the Chief Justice of India for his consideration and appropriate orders as it may not have any direct connection with the present case," the apex court had said.

The top court had passed the order while hearing an appeal filed by the CBI challenging an order of the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in a criminal case.

It had earlier asked the CBI to apprise it about the steps to be taken to strengthen their prosecution unit, the bottlenecks, and also about conviction rate in matters probed by the agency.

These issues had cropped up after the apex court had noted that CBI's appeal against the high court order was filed after a delay of 542 days.