I am not a legal expert but to the best of my knowledge ‘Stay Orders’ are normally issued by courts to provide temporary relief to either party, followed by detailed proceedings, where guilt or innocence is established. The primary purpose behind them was actually to safe guard the interests of innocent party; it may not be so in many of the cases now. You talk to any lawyer and he will tell you that the easiest and quickest thing to get from the court is the Stay Order, especially on property issues.
Many a times such actions have resulted in unnecessary delay in obtaining justice. The cases linger on in courts for months and sometimes for years. For example, CDA to date has not been able to get some portion of its F 11/4 Sector vacated. Despite the fact that they have been compensated, some of them even more than once, yet when ever CDA makes an attempt to vacated it, they immediately go to court and get stay order.
Even at individual level, people undergo immense sufferings in view of the delay caused by the stay orders. Vacating a rented house from tenant sometimes takes years, despite prior notices. If the tenant does not want to vacate, he can go to the court and get a stay order, although the courts do invariably issue eviction orders in favour of the owner, yet just look at the time, effort and money that has been wasted.
A poor person is affected more as he does not have money to afford a good lawyer. In view of the foregoing there is a dire need to review the system of obtaining stay orders especially on property related issues. The spirit behind the issue of stay orders is good but the system is being manipulated to provide relief to only the rich.
CDRE (R) SAJJAD ALI SHAH BOKHARI,
Islamabad, June 1.