Government departments must provide reasonable explanations for delays in filing petitions; absence of sufficient cause results in dismissal of applications for condonation.

JUDGMENT :

Vivek Singh Thakur, J.

Both these applications for adjudication of common question of fact and law are being decided by this common order.

2. These applications have been filed for condonation of delay of 2 years, 2 months and 22 days in filing the Review Petitions against common judgment dated 20.12.2017 passed in RFA No.255 of 2011 with Cross Objection No.453 of 2011, titled as State of H.P.and others vs. Lekh Ram (died) through LRs and others and RFA No.256 of 2011 with Cross Objection No.454 of 2011, titled as State of H.P. and others vs. Madan Lal and others , whereby appeals filed by the State against common Award passed by the Reference Court in Land Reference Petition Nos.145 and 147 of 2008, were dismissed and Cross Objections filed by the respondents/Cross Objectors were allowed, by upholding the value of the land determined by the Reference Court @ Rs.7,00,000/- per bigha for all categories of land irrespective of its classification alongwith other consequential benefits in accordance with provisions of the LAND ACQUISITION ACT , 1894 (hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’) and by awarding additional interest of 15% per annum on the market value of the land fixed by Reference Court since 01.01.1989 till the date of Notification under Section 4 of the Act, i.e. 08.04.2006 as damages for utilization of land for construction of road.

3. The plea taken to justify the applications for condonation of delay is that in 19 similar situated RFAs, a judgment was passed on 31.07.2017. The Department had filed Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) before the Supreme Court, and all those 19 cases were remanded vide order dated 14.08.2019 passed by Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No.6308 of 2019, titled as State of Himachal Pradesh and others vs. Kanshi Ram and others , and other connected matters, and at that time Department came to learn about the decision dated 20.12.2017 passed in present matters, but no copy of judgment was made available to the Department.

4. It is further case of the State that the concerned Executive Engineer vide letter dated 15.01.2020 sent the case file for further opinion to Engineer-in-Chief, who forwarded the case to the Additional Chief Secretary (PWD) to the Government of Himachal Pradesh vide letter dated 29.01.2020 for legal opinion from the Law Department.

5. It has further been stated that after taking the opinion of the Law Department, matter was sent to Engineer-in-Chief with copy to concerned Superintending Engineer as well as to the office of Executive Engineer vide communication dated 15.02.2020 with direction to file Review Petition.

6. Engineer-in-Chief conveyed the opinion to Executive Engineer with copy to the Superintending Engineer vide communication dated 20.02.2020.

7. It is further case of the State that after receiving opinion from the Law Department, the Department applied for certified copy of the judgment dated 20.12.2017 in the High Court on 20.03.2020, and the same was prepared on 27.05.2020, attested on 03.06.2020 and was delivered to the Department on 17.06.2020 and, thereafter, Review Petition was prepared and copy vetted from the office of learned Advocate General on 10.07.2020.

8. With aforesaid submissions, it has been contended that delay in filing the Review Petition is neither intentional nor willful, but due to the reasons narrated supra which were beyond the control of the applicants-appellants-State.

9. It has been further advocated on behalf of the applicants-State that when similar matter