IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS DATED : 09.03.2026 CORAM THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE R.SURESH KUMAR and THE HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.SENTHILKUMAR C.M.P.No.24182 of 2025 in W.A.SR.No.142056 of 2025 K.Rajamoorthy ... Petitioner -Vs-

1. The District Collector, Office of the District Collector, Nagapattinam District, Nagapattinam.

2. The Tahsildar, Sirkazhi Taluk, Nagapattinam District. ... Respondents PRAYER in C.M.P.No.24182 of 2025 : Petition filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, to condone the delay of 2246 days in filing the writ appeal as against the order made in W.P.No.29124 of 2018 dated 18.03.2019.

PRAYER in W.A.SR.No.142056 of 2025 : Appeal filed under Clause XV of Letters Patent, against the order dated 18.03.2019 in W.P.No.29124 of 2018.

For Petitioner : Mr.T.Muruganantham For Respondents : Mr.E.Veda Bagath Singh Special Government Pleader

O R D E R

(Order of the Court was made by R.SURESH KUMAR, J.)

This petition is filed to condone the huge delay of 2246 days in filing W.A.SR.No.142056 of 2025 as against the order passed by the writ Court dated

18.03.2019 in W.P.No.29124 of 2018.

2. According to the petitioner, the following is the reason for delay:

“4. The Petitioner respectfully submitted that after the rejection order of the first respondent, the petitioner made several attempts to the first respondent officials and requested to re-consider the application for compassionate appointment. The petitioner waited for more than three years but no order of re-consideration was passed by the first respondent. The petitioner filed the above writ petition before this Hon’ble Court and challenging the order of the first respondent dated 09.04.2013 in W.P.No.29124 of 2018. This Hon’ble Court without considering the petitioner’s family indigent circumstances and erroneously dismissed the writ petition on 18.03.2019. Aggrieved against the order of the Hon’ble Single Judge, the petitioner has preferred this present Writ Appeal before this High Court with delay of 2246 days.”

3. Except this reason, nothing has been stated about the delay. Even in this paragraph, no specific explanation has been given. It is submitted by the learned counsel for the petitioner that, all these years the petitioner had been working in some other State, therefore, he could not immediately take steps to prefer an intra-Court appeal within the prescribed time. If this is the reason, for that reason alone, his application has to be rejected.

4. The father of the petitioner died in harness in the year 2003. Its been twenty three years now, still the petitioner is pursuing his remedy for getting compassionate appointment. The compassionate appointment scheme itself is only to bail out the family which is in indigent circumstances due to the sudden demise of the head of the family who might be the sole bread winner of the family, even that situation might not be available here. Moreover, not even a single reason has been given by the petitioner for such a huge delay of 2246 days.

5. The Hon’ble Supreme Court has repeatedly held that, condonation of delay is not a matter of course, therefore, unless a strong reason is given, which prevented the litigant from coming to the Court, to file an appeal in time, then only that kind of condonation of delay petition shall be entertained. However, in the present case, no acceptable reason has been offered for the delay. Therefore, this petition is liable to be dismissed, accordingly, it is dismissed. Connected W.A.SR.No.142056 of 2025 is rejected.

(R.S.K., J.) (N.S., J.)

09.03.2026 NCC : Yes / No Index : Yes / No Speaking Order : Yes / No vji To

1. The District Collector, Office of the District Collector, Nagapattinam District, Nagapattinam.

2. The Tahsildar, Sirkazhi Taluk, Nagapattinam District.

R.SURESH KUMAR, J.

and N.SENTHILKUMAR, J.

vji

09.03.2026