SC seeks response from High Courts of 8 States

New Delhi : The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from eight states and their high courts on a suo motu case over the adverse impact of stay orders granted by the appellate courts on the pace of criminal trials.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar recently took a suo motu (on its own) note of an order passed by a bench headed by former SC judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on November 8, 2021, on the issue of adverse impact of stay orders on criminal trials.

The case, 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", came up for consideration on Monday for the first time. The CJI said on the question of stay granted, the respective high courts could file their responses within six weeks and ordered the hearing to be held during the week commencing March 17, 2025.

The bench further ordered a copy of the affidavit filed by the CBI to be served on the standing counsel of the respective state governments. Maharashtra, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Kerala and Mizoram would have to file their responses as they withdrew the general consent to the CBI to probe cases within their territory. The apex court, while dealing with a petition filed by the CBI in November 2021, flagged the issue of stay orders granted by the appellate courts and its adverse impact. "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 said in its November 8, 2021 order.

It then underlined that the aspect needed to be addressed judicially by registering an appropriate petition as a public interest petition with a notice to the states and the high courts concerned. "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 bench headed by Justice Kaul had said.

The CBI was previously asked to apprise the top court about the steps to be taken to strengthen their prosecution unit, the bottlenecks, and about the conviction rate in matters probed by the agency. These issues cropped up after the apex court noted that the CBI's appeal against the high court order was filed after a delay of 542 days.