Appeal against an interim order can’t be entertained: HC

The division bench comprising Justices S Manikumar and Subramonium Prasad before whom the appeal came set aside the appeal after quoting various orders which dwelt on the disturbing tendency wherein appeals are filed against interim exparte orders without resorting to normal course of approaching the court which passed such orders.

In this case, based on the plea moved by 11 students, the writ court while admitting the petition had directed the institute to return the original certificates on or before June 17 to enable them to join any other regular college for the academic year 2019-20 and report compliance.

Aggrieved by this interim order, SAMS had moved the appeal on the grounds that no opportunity was given by the Court to the appellant to put forth their contentions on the merits of the case. Senior Counsel M S Krishnan appearing for SAMS submitted that it was a fundamental principle of law that no order can be passed by any court in any judicial proceedings without hearing and giving such party an opportunity of hearing.

However, the bench on observing that SAMS ought to have moved an application for vacating the interim order instead of filing the instant writ appeal, cited an order by a division bench of the Madras High Court that when an interim order is passed, an application under Article 226(3) of the Constitution of India can be filed for vacating the said order and that appeal against such interim order should not be entertained.

Based on this, the bench closed the appeal after holding that it is open to SAMS to move the writ court. “If any such application is filed, writ court is requested to deal with the same on merits,” the bench added.