Allahabad High Court
State Of U.P. And Another vs Ashok Kumar Srivastava on 29 January, 2021
Bench: Munishwar Nath Bhandari, Rohit Ranjan Agarwal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 40 Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 95 of 2021 Appellant :- State Of U.P. And Another Respondent :- Ashok Kumar Srivastava Counsel for Appellant :- Pranab Kumar Ganguli Counsel for Respondent :- Udayan Nandan Hon'ble Munishwar Nath Bhandari,J.
Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
Heard on the application for condonation of delay.
The delay in filing the appeal is of 355 days. The application for condonation of delay has been filed stating that judgment in the writ petition was passed by the learned Single Judge on 21.01.2020. The matter was processed for filing of the appeal and remained pending with Director (Secondary Education) till imposition of lock down on 22.03.2020. The decision to file the appeal was taken in the Month of December, 2020 and accordingly delay occurred in filing the appeal.
The explanation to condone the delay is not justified. The lock down was imposed almost after two months of the passing of the judgment whereas the limitation to file an appeal is of 30 days. It is also a fact that after the lock down in March, 2020, the State was filing appeals regularly and Allahabad High Court was working physically from June, 2020. No reason remains why the matter was not processed for filing the appeal during the intervening period and thereby, to take a decision to file appeal in the Month of December, 2020.
Thus, we are unable to accept the explanation of delay in filing of the appeal. It is even in the light of the judgment of Apex Court in Special Leave Petition (Civil) Diary No.971 of 2020 (State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. vs. Prem Chandra) decided on 27.11.2020.
In view of above, the application for condonation of delay is rejected.
In the result, special appeal is dismissed.
Order Date :- 29.1.2021 V.S.Singh