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We could have dismissed this petition solely on the ground of delay but we do not intend to do this as we have something else in our mind, court said
The Supreme Court has taken a serious view of filing of petitions before it with a delay of 300 to 400 days by the Madhya Pradesh government and sought personal presence of state law secretary to explain it.
A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and R Mahadevan wondered as to who took such a decision of filing petitions with gross delay.
"We admire the courage with which the State of Madhya Pradesh has been filing special leave petitions in this court over a period of time with delay of 300/400 days," the bench said.
Taking up the petition filed by the Madhya Pradesh government, the bench said filing of petitions with delay was not the problem.
"The matter of concern is as to who is taking the decision to challenge a particular order passed by the High Court before the Supreme Court," the bench said.
The court noted in the present case, the state preferred a Second Appeal under Section 100 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 before the high court with delay of 656 days.
The State was not able to assign any sufficient cause for this gross delay and, accordingly, the high court rejected the plea to condone the delay.
It is this order which has now been made a subject matter of challenge before this court by filing the present Special Leave Petition and that too with delay of 177 days, the court noted.
"We could have dismissed this petition solely on the ground of delay but we do not intend to do this as we have something else in our mind," the bench said, giving an indication that it may put a mechanism to avoid such delays.
The bench directed the Law Secretary of the State of Madhya Pradesh to remain present before the court on February 14, 2025 along with the original files containing the decision taken to challenge the impugned order passed by the high court declining to condone the delay of 656 days.
"We would like to know who is that authority who took the decision that the order passed by the High Court is worth challenging before this court," the bench asked the state government.
The matter arose out of a challenge to the high court's order of April 5, 2024.
Case Title: The State of Madhya Pradesh & Ors Vs Gokulchand & Anr
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