Court No. - 29
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 20112 of 2020 Petitioner :- Ravindra Nath Mishra Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Lal Mani Singh,Raghuvir Sharan Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Shashi Prakash Rai,Shivam Yadav
Hon'ble Pankaj Naqvi,J. Hon'ble Piyush Agrawal,J.
Heard Raghuvir Sharan Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner, Shri Shashi Prakash Rai, learned counsel for respondent nos. 2 & 3 and learned Standing Counsel for the State - respondent nos. 1, 4 & 5.
The petitioner is reported to have preferred an appeal under section 27(2) of the Uttar Pradesh Urban Planning & Development Act, 1973 on 17.07.2020, but neither the stay application accompanying thereto, nor the appeal has been disposed of till date.
Shri Rai strongly refutes that according to his instruction, no such appeal has been preferred.
Without going into the issue as to whether an appeal has been preferred or not, prima facie, we are of the view that in the event any such appeal is filed, along with stay application, then the appellate authority is obliged under law to dispose of, at least, the stay application or the appeal itself, as the case may be, as the very purpose of appeal would stand frustrated if the appeal is kept pending without any interim order in favour of the petitioner. Reliance may be placed on the judgement of the Apex Court in Mool Chand Yadav and another v. Raza Buland Sugar Company Limited, Rampur and others, reported in (1982) 3 SCC 484, where it has been provided that an appeal against an order having drastic consequences, either the appeal or the stay application, must be decided at the earliest, else, the very purpose of the appeal would stand frustrated.
We, therefore, direct the appellate authority/ Commissioner/respondent no. 5 to decide and dispose of, either the appeal or the stay application accompanying thereto, provided same has been filed, as expeditiously as possible, preferably, within six weeks from the date of production of copy of this order, in accordance with law.
Order Date :- 8.1.2021 Amit Mishra