India, Sept. 23 -- New Delhi

The Supreme Court on Monday took a significant step to rid the Walled City of illegal commercial misuse of residential premises, by directing that any stay order against sealing action by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) shall become ineffective from December 31. This essentially gives affected parties until December 31 to approach the court to challenge the vacation of the stay order.

A bench of justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh passed the order as part of a series of steps to rid commercial misuse of residential properties after it took suo motu notice of large-scale violations and pulled up civic authorities for turning a blind eye to such violations.

The bench said, "All stay orders grant...