Full Judgment Text
REPORTABLE
2024 INSC 932
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (C) Diary No. 48636 of 2024
State of Madhya Pradesh …Petitioner
Versus
Ramkumar Choudhary ...Respondent
O R D E R
1. This Special Leave Petition is filed by the petitioner - State of Madhya Pradesh
against the judgment dated 24.01.2024 passed by the Hon’ble High Court of
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Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Second Appeal No.2895 of 2019, whereby, the
High Court dismissed the appeal on the ground that it was filed with inordinate
delay of 5 years 10 months and 16 days and no satisfactory reason was adduced
for the same.
2. We have heard Mr. Harmeet Singh Ruprah, learned Deputy Advocate General
Signature Not Verified
Digitally signed by
VISHAL ANAND
Date: 2024.12.05
11:03:08 IST
Reason:
appearing for the petitioner, who submitted that the delay caused in filing the
1 Hereinafter shortly referred to as “the High Court”
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second appeal was well explained by the State and the same was not intentional.
However, the High Court erroneously dismissed the second appeal on the
ground of delay, without considering the merits of the case, wherein, valuable
Government lands measuring total extent of 1,300 Hectare situated at Village
Majhganwa, Tehsil and District Katni, were involved. He further submitted that
though the trial Court passed the well-reasoned judgment dismissing the suit
filed by the respondent herein, the first Appellate Court reversed the same and
allowed the appeal in favour of the respondent, thereby affecting the right of the
petitioner in respect of the said lands.
3. It appears from the materials on record that originally, the respondent filed Civil
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Suit No.79A/2011 before the Civil Judge, Class-2, Katni seeking declaration of
title and permanent injunction in respect of lands in Survey Nos.107, 108, 115,
respectively measuring an extent of 0.36, 0.40, 0.54 hectare situated at village
Majhganwa, Katni, stating that that he has been in possession of the said lands
since 1970 and has been given leasehold right by the Settlement Officer in the
year 1989. By judgment and decree dated 29.08.2013, the trial Court dismissed
the said suit. Challenging the same, the respondent preferred Civil Appeal
rd 3
No.25A/2013 which was allowed by the 3 Additional District Judge, Katni by
judgment and decree dated 21.08.2014. Stating that the land in Khasra No.107
admeasuring 0.36 hectare was registered in the name of Bhu-Dan Board,
2 Hereinafter shortly referred to as “the trial Court”
3 Hereinafter referred to as “the First Appellate Court”
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Government of M.P. and the land in Khasra Nos.108 and 115 was reserved for
Charokhar, Grass, Beed or Chara as per Nistar Patrak; and the respondent was
not in possession of the said lands and leasehold right was not given to him by
any settlement officer and no consent was also given in this regard, the State
preferred Second Appeal No.2895 of 2019 along with an Interlocutory
Application No.13106 of 2019 seeking to condone the delay of 5 years 10
months and 16 days in filing the same. The High Court declined to condone the
delay and dismissed the second appeal by the judgment impugned herein.
4. Evidently, there was enormous delay occurred at every stage i.e., from the date
of receipt of the judgment passed by the First Appellate Court to till the date of
filing the second appeal by the State. The judgement was passed by the First
Appellate Court on 21.08.2014 and the same was communicated by the
Government Advocate representing the State to the Collector, only on
25.08.2015 i.e., after a delay of one year. Causing 3 months’ delay, by letter
dated 10.12.2015, the Collector informed to the Principal Secretary, Revenue
Department, about the passing of the judgment against the State and preferring
a second appeal against the same. Thereafter, the Law Department took three
years’ time and gave permission for filing appeal on 26.10.2018, which was
sent to the Collector on 31.10.2018. Based on the said opinion, after preparation
of the appeal papers, the State filed the second appeal only on 18.10.2019.
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Hence, there was inordinate delay of 1788 days occasioned in preferring the
second appeal, but the same was not properly explained by the State.
5. The legal position is that where a case has been presented in the Court beyond
limitation, the petitioner has to explain the Court as to what was the "sufficient
cause" which means an adequate and enough reason which prevented him to
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approach the Court within limitation. In Majji Sannemma v. Reddy Sridevi , it
was held by this Court that even though limitation may harshly affect the rights
of a party, it has to be applied with all its rigour when prescribed by statute. A
reference was also made to the decision of this Court in Ajay Dabra v. Pyare
5
Ram wherein, it was held as follows:
"13. This Court in the case of Basawaraj v. Special Land Acquisition
Officer [(2013) 14 SCC 81] while rejecting an application for
condonation of delay for lack of sufficient cause has concluded in
Paragraph 15 as follows:
“15. The law on the issue can be summarised to the effect
that where a case has been presented in the court beyond
limitation, the applicant has to explain the court as to what
was the “sufficient cause” which means an adequate and
enough reason which prevented him to approach the court
within limitation. In case a party is found to be negligent, or
for want of bona fide on his part in the facts and
circumstances of the case, or found to have not acted
diligently or remained inactive, there cannot be a justified
4 2021 SCC Online SC 1260
5 2023 SCC Online SC 92
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ground to condone the delay. No court could be justified in
condoning such an inordinate delay by imposing any
condition whatsoever. The application is to be decided only
within the parameters laid down by this Court in regard to
the condonation of delay. In case there was no sufficient
cause to prevent a litigant to approach the court on time
condoning the delay without any justification, putting any
condition whatsoever, amounts to passing an order in
violation of the statutory provisions and it tantamounts to
showing utter disregard to the legislature.”
14. Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that the High Court
did not commit any mistake in dismissing the delay condonation
application of the present appellant."
Thus, it is crystal clear that the discretion to condone the delay has to be
exercised judiciously based on facts and circumstances of each case and that,
the expression 'sufficient cause' cannot be liberally interpreted, if negligence,
inaction or lack of bona fides is attributed to the party.
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5.1. In Union of India v. Jahangir Byramji Jeejeebhoy (D) through his legal heir ,
wherein, one of us (J.B.Pardiwala, J) was a member, after referring to various
decisions on the issue, it was in unequivocal terms observed by this Court that
delay should not be excused as a matter of generosity and rendering substantial
6 2024 INSC 262 : 2024 SCC OnLine SC 489
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justice is not to cause prejudice to the opposite party. The relevant passage of
the same is profitably extracted below:
“24. In the aforesaid circumstances, we made it very clear that we
are not going to look into the merits of the matter as long as we are
not convinced that sufficient cause has been made out for
condonation of such a long and inordinate delay.
25. It hardly matters whether a litigant is a private party or a State
or Union of India when it comes to condoning the gross delay of
more than 12 years. If the litigant chooses to approach the court
long after the lapse of the time prescribed under the relevant
provisions of the law, then he cannot turn around and say that no
prejudice would be caused to either side by the delay being
condoned. This litigation between the parties started sometime in
1981. We are in 2024. Almost 43 years have elapsed. However, till
date the respondent has not been able to reap the fruits of his
decree. It would be a mockery of justice if we condone the delay of
12 years and 158 days and once again ask the respondent to
undergo the rigmarole of the legal proceedings.
26. The length of the delay is a relevant matter which the court
must take into consideration while considering whether the delay
should be condoned or not. From the tenor of the approach of the
appellants, it appears that they want to fix their own period of
limitation for instituting the proceedings for which law has
prescribed a period of limitation. Once it is held that a party has
lost his right to have the matter considered on merits because of his
own inaction for a long, it cannot be presumed to be non-deliberate
delay and in such circumstances of the case, he cannot be heard to
plead that the substantial justice deserves to be preferred as
against the technical considerations. While considering the plea for
condonation of delay, the court must not start with the merits of the
main matter. The court owes a duty to first ascertain the bona fides
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of the explanation offered by the party seeking condonation. It is
only if the sufficient cause assigned by the litigant and the
opposition of the other side is equally balanced that the court may
bring into aid the merits of the matter for the purpose of condoning
the delay.
27. We are of the view that the question of limitation is not merely a
technical consideration. The rules of limitation are based on the
principles of sound public policy and principles of equity. We
should not keep the ‘Sword of Damocles’ hanging over the head of
the respondent for indefinite period of time to be determined at the
whims and fancies of the appellants.
xxx xxx xxx
34. In view of the aforesaid, we have reached to the conclusion that
the High Court committed no error much less any error of law in
passing the impugned order. Even otherwise, the High Court was
exercising its supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 of the
Constitution of India.
35. In a plethora of decisions of this Court, it has been said that
delay should not be excused as a matter of generosity. Rendering
substantial justice is not to cause prejudice to the opposite party.
The appellants have failed to prove that they were reasonably
diligent in prosecuting the matter and this vital test for condoning
the delay is not satisfied in this case.
36. For all the foregoing reasons, this appeal fails and is hereby
dismissed. There shall be no order as to costs.”
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Applying the above legal proposition to the facts of the present case, we are of
the opinion that the High Court correctly refused to condone the delay and
dismissed the appeal by observing that such inordinate delay was not explained
satisfactorily, no sufficient cause was shown for the same, and no plausible
reason was put forth by the State. Therefore, we are inclined to reject this
petition at the threshold.
6. At the same time, we cannot simply brush aside the delay occurred in preferring
the second appeal, due to callous and lackadaisical attitude on the part of the
officials functioning in the State machinery. Though the Government adopts
systematic approach in handling the legal issues and preferring the
petitions/applications/appeals well within the time, due to the fault on the part
of the officials in merely communicating the information on time, huge revenue
loss will be caused to the Government exchequer. The present case is one such
case, wherein, enormous delay of 1788 days occasioned in preferring the
second appeal due to the lapses on the part of the officials functioning under the
State, though valuable Government lands were involved. Therefore, we direct
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the State to streamline the machinery touching the legal issues, offering legal
opinion, filing of cases before the Tribunal / Courts, etc., fix the responsibility
on the officer(s) concerned, and penalize the officer(s), who is/are responsible
for delay, deviation, lapses, etc., if any, to the value of the loss caused to the
Government. Such direction will have to be followed by all the States
scrupulously.
7. There is one another aspect of the matter which we must not ignore or overlook.
Over a period of time, we have noticed that whenever there is a plea for
condonation of delay be it at the instance of a private litigant or State the delay
is sought to be explained right from the time, the limitation starts and if there is
a delay of say 2 years or 3 years or 4 years till the end of the same. For example
if the period of limitation is 90 days then the party seeking condonation has to
explain why it was unable to institute the proceedings within that period of
limitation. What events occurred after the 91st day till the last is of no
consequence. The court is required to consider what came in the way of the
st th
party that it was unable to file it between the 1 day and the 90 day. It is true
that a party is entitled to wait until the last day of limitation for filing an appeal.
But when it allows the limitation to expire and pleads sufficient cause for not
filing the appeal earlier, the sufficient cause must establish that because of some
event or circumstance arising before the limitation expired it was not possible to
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file the appeal within time. No event or circumstance arising after the expiry of
limitation can constitute such sufficient cause. There may be events or
circumstances subsequent to the expiry of limitation which may further delay
the filing of the appeal. But that the limitation has been allowed to expire
without the appeal being filed must be traced to a cause arising within the period
of limitation. (See: Ajit Singh Thakur Singh and Another v. State of Gujarat ,
AIR 1981 SC 733).
8. Accordingly, we dismiss this Special Leave Petition with costs of Rs.1,00,000/-
to be deposited by the State within a period of two weeks from today with the
Supreme Court Mediation Centre and file proof thereof. If the said amount, as
directed, is not deposited by the State, the Registry shall take necessary steps
for recovery of the same, in accordance with law.
9. We have deemed it necessary to impose costs to send a stern message that the
States must not misuse the Supreme Court’s time by filing appeals against the
well-reasoned and conscious decisions rendered by the High Courts without
proper grounds.
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10. Pending application(s), if any, shall stand disposed of.
……………………………….J.
(J. B. PARDIWALA)
………………………………J.
(R. MAHADEVAN)
New Delhi.
November 29, 2024.
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