ORAL ORDER

Award and order dated 16/12/2014 passed in Reference (LCD) No.942 of 2008 and the order dated 18/08/2017 passed in the Recovery Application No.78 of 2015 rendered by the Labour Court, Dahod are sought to be assailed in this petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

On consideration of the submissions made by learned AGP, it would transpire that the challenge to the main award dated 16/12/2014 is hopelessly delayed by about five years; without any plausible explanation. On the principle envisaged in Prabhakar Vs. Joint Director, Sericulture Department And Another reported in (2015) 15 SCC 1, the State also would be under an obligation to explain the delay in lodging a challenge to the award.

Learned AGP invited the attention of this Court to paragraph 5 of the petition with the submission that the delay has been explained. The averment runs thus:

“5. It is submitted that the impugned order at ANNEXURE-A totally passed by the Learned Labour Court on 16.12.2014, However, the certified copy of the same was not received by the deponent office, It was only, when the Revision Application came to be filed the deponent came to know about the order of the Labour Court.