SUPREME COURT IMPOSING HEAVY COSTS ON GOVERNMENT FOR DELAYED FILINGS. TO BE BORNE BY GOVT OFFICIALS.

The Supreme Court seems to be in an uncompromising mood these days when it comes to delays regarding the filing of appeals by Govt & Officials. The Stern pace at which the Supreme Court is imposing costs on the government for huge delays in filing appeals and directing recovery from officials responsible for the delay, soon many officers would be left with little in the bank by the end of the month.

Days after imposing a cost of ₹ 25,000 on the railways and asking it to be recovered from officers responsible for the delay of 385 days in filing the appeal before the SC, A division of the Supreme Court on Thursday slapped the HRD ministry with a cost of ₹ 100,000 for filing an appeal in the high court after a delay of 6 years & 8 months and then carrying it to the SC after a delay of 1.5 years. The Supreme Court pulled up the Law secretary & HRD secretary to make sure that the cost of ₹ 1 lakh was recovered from the officials responsible for the delay in filling.

"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," the bench said. A writ petition was filed in 2000 in Delhi High Court, raising a question of parity in the pay scale of employees of the Central Tibetan School Administration. A single-judge bench of the Delhi HC allowed it in May 2002. The Centre filed an appeal but no one appeared when it was called for hearing before a division bench, which dismissed it. After eight years, the Centre sought restoration of the appeal saying the council had become a judge and it wasn't aware of the "peculiar circumstances". The HC had dismissed the plea and said the Centre was not an illiterate litigant. The bench headed by Justice Kaul agreed with the Delhi HC and said, "The Indian Government is manned by a large legal department having numerous officers and advocates. The excuse given for the delay is, to say the least, preposterous". On the case in hand, the bench dismissed the appeal and ordered, "Looking to the gross negligence and the impunity with which the Union of India has approached this court in a matter like this, we consider it appropriate to impose a special cost of Rs 1 lakh, in this case, to be recovered from the concerned officer(s), to be deposited with the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Welfare Fund within four weeks.