Supreme Court: In an application filed by State of Odisha, seeking condonation of delay of 587 days, the 3-judge bench of SK Kaul, Ajay Rastogi and Aniruddha Bose, JJ imposed a cost of Rs. 50, 000 and directed that an enquiry be conducted and cost be recovered from the delinquent officer.
“The Department should hold an enquiry, fix responsibility and recover the cost from the delinquent officer and file the certificate of recovery in this Court. The needful be done within four weeks.”
The Court observed that the application for condonation of delay reflected a saga of movement of file from one department to the other with no cogent explanation why for months together files have been detained in the department.
“These are what we categorise as “certificate cases” filed by the departments to obtain an order of dismissal from the Supreme Court so that they can go back and say that they have made all endeavours to limit the loss to the State.”
The Court, hence, imposed a cost of Rs. 50,000/- to be deposited with the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Welfare Fund.
[State of Odisha v. Dilip Kumar Pratihari, 2020 SCC OnLine SC 603 , order dated 27.07.2020]
