Courts Should Be Conscious Of Bureaucratic Delays While Considering Delay Condonation Pleas By State: SC [Read Order]

The Supreme Court has observed that while considering the delay condonation pleas filed by State, the Courts should be conscious of the bureaucratic delays and the slow pace in reaching a Government decision and the routine way of deciding whether the State should prefer an appeal against a judgment adverse to it.

The court was considering an appeal filed by the State against the Manipur High Court's order rejecting the application for condonation of delay of 312 days in preferring the Regular First Appeal. The state had submitted that they made a bonafide mistake in preferring the appeal against the order and decree before a wrong forum.

While allowing the appeal [State of Manipur vs. Koting Lamkang], the bench comprising Justice R. Banumathi, Justice AS Bopanna and Justice Hrishikesh Roy said:

Regard should be had in similar such circumstances to the impersonal nature of the Government's functioning where individual officers may fail to act responsibly. This in turn, would result in injustice to the institutional interest of the State. If the appeal filed by State are lost for individual default, those who are at fault, will not usually be individually affected.

The court also noted that, as per the impugned order which was appealed against, the State of Manipur, the Director General of Police and the Commandant of 8th battalion of the Manipur rifles, are to vacate and handover a property projected to be an area of strategic importance. If consideration of the RFA is not permitted on strategically sensitive case involving security, in the ultimate analysis, the public interest is likely to suffer, the bench said. 

SC view in some other cases

The Supreme Court, in some cases, have held that Government working lethargy is not a pretext to condone the delay. Importantly, in Chief Post Master General vs. Living Media India Ltd. [2012(3) SCC 563], it was observed:

The claim on account of impersonal machinery and inherited bureaucratic methodology of making several notes cannot be  accepted in view of the modern technologies being used and available. The law of limitation undoubtedly binds everybody including the Government.. In our view, it is the right time to inform all the government bodies, their agencies and instrumentalities that unless they have reasonable and acceptable explanation for the delay and there was bonafide effort, there is no need to accept the usual explanation that the file was kept pending for several months/years due to considerable degree of procedural red-tape in the process. The government departments are under a special obligation to ensure that they perform their duties with diligence and commitment. Condonation of delay is an exception and should not be used as an anticipated benefit for government departments. The law shelters everyone under the same light and should not be swirled for the benefit of a few. 

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