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The Supreme Court imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 on the Bihar Government for extraordinary delay in filing a special leave petition. This action, prompted the Supreme Court to state that government lethargy is not a pretext to condone the delay.
An order before a single bench at the Patna High Court was assailed before the Division Bench after a delay of 367 days. This was dismissed by the division bench, for there was no justified reason given for the delay. However there was further delay, after 728 days from the date of the Division bench order, a special leave petition was filed before the Supreme Court. The State gave the delay of the reaching of the affidavit and vakalatnama from the department in question as the cause for the delay.
However, this was rejected by the Supreme Court in a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indira Banerjee who reiterated the fact that Government Authorities cannot approach the Court as and when they please due to the gross incompetence of their officers. There was no satisfactory answer as to the delay of 728 days, It was also emphasized that the,law of limitation apparently does not apply to the State Government according to its conduct. This looking over the delay is not admissible in the Court anymore as decided in the case of, The Chief Post Master General vs. Living Media India Ltd.
The filing of the SLP was possibly to get a certificate of dismissal from the Court, this is noting but a waste of the precious time of the Court. On dismissal of the matter, the Hon’ble Court also directed the Chief Secretary of the State of Bihar to look into this matter and ensure the proper management of the legal cases, adding that the cost has to be recovered from the officers responsible for the delay.
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