Apex Court refuses to accept U.P. Govt's plea seeking condonation of huge delay of 1,633 days in filing petition, says case was not properly followed up at any stage
Justices Rajesh Bindal & C.T. Ravikumar [03-05-2023]

Read Order: STATE OF U.P. & ANOTHER v. MOHAN LAL [SC- SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) No.25032 of 2014

LE COrrespondent

New Delhi, May 7, 2024: In a civil matter, the Supreme Court has dismissed an application filed by the U.P. Government seeking condonation of delay of 1,633 days in view of the fact that the petitioner-State appeared before the High Court and was heard before passing of the impugned order.

The petitioner assailed the impugned order passed by the Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court and also filed an application seeking condonation of delay of 1,633 days in filing the present petition.

The Division Bench of Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice C.T. Ravikumar took note of the fact that to challenge the impugned order passed in 2009 by the High Court, the file was put up before the Competent Authority, Bareilly, for the first time on in 2011. On this file the Competent Authority directed to seek legal opinion from the District Government Counsel (Civil) (Hereinafter referred to as DGC (Civil)). After receiving the legal opinion from DGC (Civil), permission was sought from the State Government which was granted and received by the petitioner on 16.09.2011. 

To explain the delay in filing the petition, the only plea taken was that the matter was entrusted to the counsel. However, later it was found that initially the appeal was not filed. It was further evident from the application that the case was not properly followed up at any stage. 

The Bench said, “The explanation given for seeking condonation of huge delay of 1,633 days cannot be accepted, when it is not disputed that the petitioner-State appeared before the High Court and was heard before passing of the impugned order, so it was within their knowledge.”

The Bench also noticed that the petitioner-State in this petition had mentioned in its ground that in an identical case involving the same question of law, the petitioner-State had preferred one SLP in which this Court had issued notice, and the matter was still pending adjudication. However, the Bench stated that the same had also been dismissed by the Top Court.

Thus observing that no sufficient cause was made out for condonation of huge delay of 1,633 days in filing the present petition, the Bench dismissed the application for condonation for delay and the SLP.