A division bench comprising justices Devinder Gupta and Manmohan Sarin stayed the extradition on an appeal against an extradition magistrate's order in October directing the Centre to send Larson to the US.

Granting an interim stay till January 11, the next date of hearing, the bench issued a notice to the Centre to file its reply.

A Florida judge had on September 9, 1991, convicted Larson for selling one kg of cocaine to some agents from Hollywood with whom he had negotiated a deal for two kg of the drug. But the sentence was deferred as Larson promised to help the US justice department in nabbing the other accused.

However, without extending any cooperation to the justice department, he fled from the US and was nabbed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport by CBI officials following an Interpol red alert.

In the appeal filed through counsel Harjinder Singh, Larson has claimed that the extradition magistrate had no jurisdiction under the Narcotics Drugs Psychotropic Substance (NDPS) Act and the extradition request from the US authorities was not ``valid'' as it had not come through a ``diplomatic channel''. The US Embassy in the Capital had sent a letter to the authorities requesting them to arrest Larson a day after his detention.