Supreme Court Pulls Up Bihar State Government For Extraordinary Delay In Filing Special Leave Petition

The Supreme Court pulled up the Bihar state government for its extraordinary delay in filing a special leave petition and imposed a cost of Rs 20,000 on it, adding that the lethargy of the government is not a pretext to condone the delay.

The court cited a judgment in the case of The Chief Post Master General versus Living Media India Ltd to reiterate that such condonation of delay is inadmissible on the pretext of the government’s lethargy.

It observed that the objective of filing the special leave petition is possibly to get a certificate of dismissal from the Supreme Court.

Calling it a complete wastage of judicial time, the court said that the petitioners must pay for the same, adding that the cost has to be recovered from the officers responsible for this delay.

It dismissed the special leave petition and directed the Chief Secretary of the State of Bihar to look into the matter in order to ensure better management of legal cases.

The court made these observations after an order of a single judge of the Patna High Court was assailed before the division bench after a delay of 367 days.

The division bench dismissed the application for condonation of delay on the ground that there was no sufficient cause shown for the same.

A special leave petition was filed before the Supreme Court after 728 days from the date of the division bench order.

The reason stated by the State of Bihar for the delay was that it had taken time to receive the affidavit and ‘vakalatnama’ from the concerned department. A ‘vakalatnama’, is a document, by which the party filing the case, authorizes an advocate to represent on their behalf.

The Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Indira Banerjee said that a clear signal had to be sent to the Bihar government authorities that they cannot approach the court as and when they please, due to gross incompetence of their officers.

It also observed that no details for the Bihar state government’s 728-day delay was given.