`Judgment

KRISHNA IYER, J.:- A litigation launched by the sons of a frustrated philanthropist, who is no more, has reached the last deck of the Justice edifice as a civil appeal, by special leave, a little over 22 years after its institution. While illustrating the injustice of delayed justice this case more provocatively exposes the damage done by the Administration s dilatory indifference to a clear commitment of an enthusiastic Collector to construct quickly a female hospital out of a donation from a compassionate gentleman in Kannauj on certain conditions which were breached by Government, according to the findings of the courts below. These socially disturbing features will be better appreciated, regardless of the legal result, when the facts are set out, which we now proceed to do.

2. An old, affluent man called Dubey, in a munificent mood, responded to the request of Shri Govind Narain, then Collector of Farrukhabad District, way back in 1945. A promise to donate Rs. 30,000/- was made, on the basis of a matching contribution by Government, for the good cause of a women s hospital in sacred memory of the donor s deceased wife, Gomti Devi. Apprehending the tardy ways of govern