DOHA: Lawyers say the Courts of Appeal are generally not of much help in providing interim relief to defendants in cases where a stay on a lower court’s order is urgently required.
The two important types of cases where people need an urgent stay on a lower court’s verdict are rent disputes and recovery of bank and credit card loans from defaulters.
If a lower court orders a tenant to vacate the residential premises in a rent dispute case filed by a landlord, the tenant can go in appeal, but lawyers say the Court of Appeals normally does not stay the execution of the lower court’s verdict.
The result is that the tenant is forced out of the rented premises even while he has gone in appeal against the lower court’s order. “What purpose does such an appeal serve then? It is practically of no use,” insists a lawyer.
Similarly, in bank or credit card loan default cases, defendants do go for appeal against a lower court’s decision ordering repayment, but the higher court usually asks for a bank guarantee for the entire amount. Such guarantees are hard to provide except in cases where the defendant is financially highly resourceful, lawyers say.
The Peninsula
