Court No. - 40
Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 1085 of 2020 Appellant :- State Of U.P. Through Secretary, Basic Education And 2 Others Respondent :- Devendra Kumar And Another Counsel for Appellant :- Pranab Kumar Ganguli Counsel for Respondent :- Bhawesh Pratap Singh
Hon'ble Munishwar Nath Bhandari,J. Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
Heard on the application for condonation of delay of 828 days.
The counsel for the appellant submitted that after the judgment dated 03.07.2018, the matter was processed for filing the appeal or the review petition. The matter remained pending with the administration and initially a direction was given for filing review petition but ultimately the direction was sought for filing the appeal through a letter dated 15.11.2019. The appeal was thereupon preferred in the year 2020 on a direction by letters dated 08.09.2020 and 23.09.2020. The prayer is accordingly to condone the delay to challenge the judgment dated 03.07.2018.
Learned counsel for the non-appellant has raised serious objection to the condonation of delay of 828 days. It is stated that the appeal was filed at the stage when notices in the contempt petition were issued and not only the notices but when on 07.09.2020, a direction was given for compliance of the order. In view of above, excuses herein are not bona fide and appeal was filed at the stage when a direction for compliance of judgment was given. The prayer is to dismiss the application.
We have considered the submissions made by the learned counsel for the parties and find that delay of 828 days in filing the appeal has been explained due to administrative reason. The explanation aforesaid is not sufficient to condone the delay of 828 days and otherwise the appeal was preferred at the stage when in the contempt petition, a direction was given for compliance of the order of learned Single Judge. In such circumstances, the application for delay cannot be allowed, more so, when issue is now squarely covered by judgment of Apex Court in Special Leave Petition (Civil) Diary No.971 of 2020 (State of Uttar Pradesh & Anr. vs. Prem Chandra) decided on 27.11.2020.
The application for condonation of delay is accordingly dismissed.
In the result, appeal stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 8.1.2021 V.S.Singh