‘Preposterous’: SC slaps Rs 1 lakh fine for 6,616 day delay in appeal

New Delhi, Feb 4 : The Supreme Court on Thursday made no bones about its utter dissatisfaction with the Centre for continuously failing to file appeals in several matters in time, terming “preposterous” a delay of 6,616 days in filing a special leave petition after the original order.
Agonized with the excessive delay in the matter, a bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy, opened the order saying: “The approach of the Union of India in the manner it has filed the present special leave petition exasperates us as all earlier counsel appears to have been thrown in the dustbin!” Not mincing words in criticising Centre in the six-page order, the bench said it has been repeatedly being counselling, through its orders, that various government departments, state governments and other public authorities must learn to file appeals in time and set their house in order so far as the Legal Department is concerned.
The bench also unleashed a no holds barred criticism on government officers responsible for such delays and warned them of consequences. “This appears to be falling on deaf ears despite costs having been imposed in number of matters with the direction to recover it from the officers responsible for the delay as we are of the view that these officers must be made accountable. It has not had any salutary effect and that the present matter should have been brought up, really takes the cake!” Defending the delay, the Centre said the counsel appearing in the matter was elevated as a judge of the High Court and the department was not aware about the “peculiar circumstances”.
The bench noted that the present special leave petitions have been preferred also after delay of 532 days and 6616 days from the original order. “The mighty government of India is manned with large Legal Department having numerous officers and advocates. The excuse given for the delay is, to say the least, preposterous,” it said.