The Allahabad High Court recently held that stay applications must be decided within reasonable time on filing of statutory and compliance of condition for pre-deposit.
Grievance of the petitioner is, on one hand, the petitioner’s appeal (has remained pending for more than four years and on the other hand the stay application filed by the petitioner on 24.01.2024 has been directed to be put up on the date fixed. It has been urged, unless the stay application is heard and appropriate order is passed thereon, the very purpose of filing of appeal would stand defeated.
A Division Bench of Justices Manjive Shukla and S.D. Singh observed that “It is necessary to observe, where statutory appeals are filed after making due compliance of pre deposit condition, it is incumbent on the learned court below to pass appropriate orders on the stay application within a reasonable time. Passing of routine orders requiring the stay application to be put up on the date fixed do not serve the cause of justice.”
“Accordingly, since the appeal and the stay application have already been pending before the learned court below, no useful purpose would be served in keeping the present petition pending or calling for any counter affidavit, at this stage. The writ petition is disposed of with the observation, subject to the petitioner filing a copy of this order before the learned court below, appropriate date may be fixed on the stay application and a reasoned and speaking order may be passed within a period of two weeks from the date a copy of this order is placed before the learned court below” the Bench added.
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