The Supreme Court has reiterated that filing of 'Certificate Cases' must be discouraged.

Appeals/Petitions filed for the sole purpose of getting a certificate of dismissal of the appeal/petition are categorized as 'certificate cases'.

The Court was considering an SLP filed against a Madras High Court order filed with a delay of 333 days. The court found that the reasons pleaded for the delay ' are the usual pedantic pleas of there being problems in the legal department in obtaining approval.' In this context, the bench said:

"We may note that in many earlier proceedings we have categorized such cases as "certificate cases" where the only purpose is to approach this court to get a certificate of dismissal of the appeal/petition and such endeavours must be discouraged."

The Court dismissed the SLP observing that it is not a fit case for condonation of delay. The court did not impose costs taking into account the 'prevailing situation'.

The bench headed by Justice Kaul had recently dismissed an SLP filed by State of West Bengal observing that Government has no right to walk into the Court as and when they want

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