‘Filing has collapsed, listing has collapsed’: Supreme Court flags working of Allahabad HC as ‘worrisome’

Pointing out that the Allahabad High Court is the largest high court in the country, Justice Kant said he “was there on last Saturday” and “had long interaction with some of the concerned judges and Registrar”.

The court was hearing a plea regarding the ownership of a property in Jiamau in Lucknow. In 2020, the Lucknow Development Authority had demolished a bungalow built on the land by Ansari and his sons, including Abbas Ansari, with plans to use the property to build flats under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.

‘Not inclined to express any opinion’

On Thursday, the Supreme Court bench also comprising Justice N K Singh ordered a status quo on the construction of the housing units till the high court decides the matter.

Appearing for Abbas Ansari, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal said that though his plea regarding possession of the said land was listed before the division bench of Allahabad High Court repeatedly, no interim stay had been granted.

Sibal submitted that the Supreme Court had on October 21 last year asked the high court to take up the application for interim stay expeditiously but this was yet to be done. This prompted the comments from Justice Kant.

The senior counsel’s arguments as to why the high court had not taken it for hearing, however, did not impress the bench.

In its order, the Supreme Court said, “Since we have not issued notice and have also not obtained any report from Registry of the High Court, we are not inclined to express any opinion as to what were the circumstances in which the petitioner’s writ petition could not be taken up for hearing by the bench, though it was listed from time to time.”

It took note of the petitioner’s submission that construction had started on the land and that it would cause irreversible loss to them if third-party rights were created. Accordingly, it disposed of the plea “with a direction to the authorities as well as to the petitioners to maintain status quo at the site till the matter is heard by the High Court”.