Court No. - 55
Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 922 of 2019 Appellant :- Sujeet Kumar And 21 Others Respondent :- Union Of India And 3 Others Counsel for Appellant :- Siddharth Khare,Shri Ashok Khare,Senior Advocate Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,Sabhajeet Singh
Hon'ble Vikram Nath,J. Hon'ble Pankaj Bhatia,J.
Heard Sri Siddharth Khare, learned counsel for the appellants and Sri Sabhajeet Singh, learned counsel appearing for the respondents.
The present appeal has been filed against the judgement and order dated 16.7.2019 by the appellants whose writ petition was dismissed on the ground of laches.
The learned Single Judge, however, allowed the writ petition in respect of petitioner nos. 1, 11, 20, 22, 24 to 30 and 38 of Writ – A No. 9722 of 2019 giving them the benefit of the earlier judgement of this Court in the case of Ran Vijay Singh and others vs. Union of India and others, decided on 16.4.2018.
The learned Single Judge was of the view that the present appellants had challenged their non- selection of the year 2016 to 2018 after the decision in the case of Ran Vijay Singh and others vs. Union of India and others. They were guilty of laches and had clearly approached this Court after the decisions of other writ petitions by other persons.
The counsel for the appellants has argued that the non-suiting of the appellants on the ground of laches is wholly bad in law inasmuch as during the said period no third party rights have accrued and thus dismissing the writ petition on the ground of laches is bad. He further argues that even the petitions filed by the earlier petitioners was decided in the year 2018 and furthermore even in terms of the said order no follow up action has been taken till date. He further argues that Special Appeal No. 1045 of 2018 challenging the order dated 16.4.2018 passed in Writ petition No. 2813 of 2017 was dismissed on 8.5.2019 and which orders have not been acted upon till date as such the petition cannot be dismissed on the ground of laches. He has further argued that the appellants are also entitled to the benefit of the order passed by the learned Single Judge in favour of the other petitioners being petitioner nos. 1, 11, 20, 22, 24 to 30 and 38.
Considering the submissions made by the counsel for the appellants and from the perusal of the record, it is clear that even in terms of the directions given in the earlier judgement by the Court in the case of Ran Vijay Singh vs. Union of India, decided on 16.4.2018, no steps have been taken by the respondents and also considering the fact that the appeal against the said judgement, was decided recently on 8.5.2019, the appellants cannot be denied the benefit as extended in the impugned judgement in favour of the successful petitioners and the non suiting of the appellants only on the ground of laches appears to be incorrect.
Accordingly, the present appeal is disposed of with a direction that the benefit of the order dated 16.7.2019 as extended to the petitioner nos. 1, 11, 20, 22, 24 to 30 and 38 be extended to the appellants herein also. The judgement and order of the learned Single Judge impugned in this appeal stands modified to the aforesaid extent.
With the aforesaid observation, the special appeal is disposed of.
Order Date :- 26.8.2019 Puspendra .
(Pankaj Bhatia,J.) (Vikram Nath,J.)