SC pulls up Madhya Pradesh govt for filing delayed appeal

The Supreme Court has deprecated the inordinate delays by government authorities in filing appeals before it and said they must pay for wastage of judicial time and such costs can be recovered from officers responsible.

New Delhi:The Supreme Court pulled up the Madhya Pradesh government for filing a special leave petition with a delay of 663 days and asked it to pay the fine of Rs 25,000 in 4 weeks.

The bench comprising of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Dinesh Maheshwari slammed the state government and said that "it appears that all our counselling to government and government authorities have fallen on deaf years i.e Supreme Court of India can not be a place for the governments to walk in when they chose to ignore the period of limitation prescribed".

It said that if the government machinery is so inefficient and incapable of filing on time then they should request the legislature to expand the time period for filing limitation.

MP had said that due to the unavailability of documents and arrangements it got delayed. Court observed that bar of limitation can shut even the good cases.

"The object appears to be to obtain a certificate of dismissal from the Supreme court to put a quietus to the issue and thus, say that nothing could be done because the highest court has dismissed the appeal. It is to complete this formality and save the skin of officers who may be at default that such a process is followed," read the order.

It observed that no action is taken against the officers who sit on the files and do nothing.

"We are thus, constrained to send a signal and we propose to do in all matters today, where there are such inordinate delays that the government or state authorities coming before us must pay for wastage of judicial time which has its own value. Such costs can be recovered from the officers responsible," ordered the court.