Allahabad High Court
State Of U.P. And 2 Others vs Awadhesh Narain Pandey on 4 January, 2021
Bench: Munishwar Nath Bhandari, Rohit Ranjan Agarwal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 40 Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 1242 of 2020 Appellant :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Respondent :- Awadhesh Narain Pandey Counsel for Appellant :- Rajiv Singh Counsel for Respondent :- Sanjeev Kumar Yadav Hon'ble Munishwar Nath Bhandari,J.
Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
Heard on an application under Section 5 of Limitation Act for condoning the delay of 321 days.
A perusal of the application shows receipt of the copy of the impugned judgment dated 16.10.2019 on 23.10.2019 itself. The appeal was not filed within reasonable time despite legal opinion furnished by the learned Standing Counsel on 21.11.2019. Excuse of COVID-19 has been taken but lockdown in reference to it was imposed on 23.03.2020 i.e. after four months of the opinion. Apart from that even after expiry of period of lockdown 1st, 2nd, 3rd, the appeal was not preferred immediately thereafter rather an order was passed by the respondents to show action in compliance of the judgment impugned herein. It was not accepted by the Court hearing contempt. It was looking to the findings recorded by learned Single Judge in its judgment in reference to U.P. Regularization of Persons Working on Daily Wages or on Work Charge or on Contract in Government Departments on Group 'C' and Group 'D' Posts (Outside the Purview of the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission) Rules, 2016 (in short "Rules of 2016").
Filing of appeal at that stage shows nothing but to avoid the outcome of order passed in contempt application where counsel for appellant consented for passing order as per the direction given in the impugned judgment.
Taking aforesaid facts into consideration, we find no justification to condone the delay of 321 days. The excuse of delay due to administrative reason was not accepted by the 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 the light of the aforesaid, we find no reason to accept the application for condonation of delay and accordingly, it is dismissed.
In the result, the appeal stands dismissed in absence of condonation of delay.
Order Date :- 4.1.2021 KA