2020 Supreme(SC) 879

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
N.V. Ramana, Surya Kant, Aniruddha Bose, JJ.
The State Of Madhya Pradesh - Appellant
Versus
Ranjeeta - Respondent
Special Leave Petition (Criminal) Diary No.3558/2020 (Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 20­06­2019 in CRA No. 1093/2019 passed by the High Court of M.P. at Indore)
Decided On : 27­10­2020

Headnote:

Constitution of India, 1950 – Article 226 –Special Leave Petition – Inordinately delayed filing of appeal – Court have penned down a detailed order in that case and we see no purpose in repeating the same reasoning again except to record what are stated to be facts on which delay is sought to be condoned – It is stated that Government advocate was approached in respect of judgment delivered and Law Department permitted filing of the SLP against impugned order – Thus, Law Department time to decide whether SLP had to be filed or not – What greater certificate of incompetence would there be for legal Department – Held, Court have also expressed our concern that these kinds of cases are only “certificate cases” to obtain a certificate of dismissal from Supreme Court to put a quietus to issue – Object is to save the skin of officers who may be in default – Court have also recorded irony of situation where no action is taken against officers who sit on these files and do nothing – Looking to period of delay and casual manner in which application has been worded, wastage of judicial time involved, court impose cost on petitioner/State to be deposited with Mediation and Conciliation Project Committee – Amount be deposited within four weeks – Amount be recovered from officer(s) responsible for delay in filing and sitting on files and certificate of recovery of said amount be also filed in this Court within said period of time – Court have put to Deputy Advocate General to caution that for any successive matters of this kind cost will keep on going up – Petition dismissed.