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" The plea of limitation based on this section is one which the court always looks upon with disfavor and it is unfortunate that a public authority like the Port Trust should, in all morality and justice, take up such a plea to defeat a just claim of the citizen. It is high time that governments and public authorities adopt the practice of not relying upon technical pleas for the purpose of defeating legitimate claims of citizens and do what is fair and just to the citizens. Of Course, if a government or a public authority takes up a technical plea, the Court has to decide it and if the plea is well-founded , it has to be upheld by the court, but what we fell is that such a plea should not ordinarily be taken up by a government or a public authority, unless of course the claim is not well-founded and by reason of delay in filing it, the evidence for the purpose of resisting such a claim has become unavialable."

From the aforesaid decision, it is apparent that there is no time limit for filing a writ petition. However, the court does have to see whether the laches on the part of the petitioner are such as to disentitle him to the relief claimed by him. This is a matter of discretion of the court. It is further observed by the Supreme Court that it was high time that the governments and public authorities adopt the practice of not relying upon technical pleas for the purpose of defeating legitimate claims of citizens and do what is fair and just to the citizens. The other two decisions cited by the learned counsel for the petitioner are not relevant for the controversy at hand.