Supreme Court - Daily Orders
The State Of Bihar vs Deo Kumar Singh on 9 May, 2019
Bench: Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Indira Banerjee
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ITEM NO.13 COURT NO.14 SECTION XVI
S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A
RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (CIVIL) Diary No(s). 13348/2019
(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 12-01-2017
in LPA No. 890/2015 passed by the High Court Of Judicature At
Patna)
THE STATE OF BIHAR & ORS. Petitioner(s)
VERSUS
DEO KUMAR SINGH & ORS. Respondent(s)
(FOR ADMISSION and I.R. and IA No.75330/2019-CONDONATION OF DELAY
IN FILING )
Date : 09-05-2019 This petition was called on for hearing today.
CORAM :
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SANJAY KISHAN KAUL
HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE INDIRA BANERJEE
For Petitioner(s) Mr. Samir Ali Khan, AOR
For Respondent(s)
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following
O R D E R
The petitioner-State of Bihar filed an appeal against the order of the learned Single Judge before the Division Bench after a delay of 367 days. The Division Bench dismissed the application for condonation of delay on the ground that there was no sufficient cause shown for condonation of delay. It is thereafter Signature Not Verified with a delay of 728 days that the special leave Digitally signed by NEELAM GULATI Date: 2019.05.11 12:09:07 IST Reason: petition has been filed. The reason given for seeking condonation of this extraordinary 728 days delay is as under: 2
“2. that the petitioner State is filing the present special leave petition after obtaining all the sanctions from the respective departments and took time to receive the affidavit and vakalatnama from the concerned department, hence there is delay in filing the present matter.” We are of the view that a clear signal has to sent to the Government Authorities that they cannot approach the Court as and when they please, on account of gross incompetence of their officers and that too without taking any action against the concerned officers. No detail of this delay of 728 days have been given as if there is an inherent right to seek condonation of delay by State Government. The law of limitation apparently does not apply to the State Government according to its conduct.
That such condonation of delay is no more admissible on the pretext of Government working lethargy is clear from the judgment of this court in The Chief Post Master General vs. Living Media India Ltd. [2012(3) SCC 563].
We strongly deprecate the casual manner in which the Division Bench was approached and also this Court has been approached; the objective possibly being to get a certificate of dismissal from this Court. This is complete wastage of judicial time and the petitioners must pay for the same.
We, thus, dismiss the special leave petition on delay and impost cost on the petitioners of Rs. 20,000/-to be recovered from the officers responsible for this delay and 3 be deposited with the Supreme Court Mediation Centre, within four weeks. Certificate of recovery be filed in this court.
We also direct the Chief Secretary of the State of Bihar to look into this matter to ensure better management of the legal cases.
Consequently, the special leave petition is dismissed in the aforesaid terms.
List before the Registrar, on reopening, to verify the certificate of recovery.
(NEELAM GULATI) (ANITA RANI AHUJA) COURT MASTER (SH) COURT MASTER (NSH)