The State Of Odisha State Of Odisha And Ors Commissioner Cum Secretary vs. Manoranjan Nayak

ITEM NOS.30 & 25 COURT NO.6 SECTION XIA

S U P R E M E C O U R T O F I N D I A RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

Diary No(s). 17864/2017

(Arising out of impugned final judgment and order dated 03-08-2016 in FAO No. 376/2016 passed by the High Court Of Orissa At Cuttack)

STATE OF ODISHA & ANR. Petitioner(s)

VERSUS

AKSHAYA KUMAR MALLICK & ANR. Respondent(s)

(WITH APPLN(S) FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING SLP, EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT WITH INTERIM RELIEF)

WITH

CC No(s). 9057/2017 (SEC.XIA) (WITH APPLN(S) FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY IN FILING SLP)

Date : 21-07-2017 These petitions were called on for hearing today.

CORAM :

HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KURIAN JOSEPH HON'BLE MRS. JUSTICE R. BANUMATHI

For Petitioner(s) Ms. Asiya Khan,Adv. For Krishnayan Sen, AOR

Mr. Som Raj Choudhury, AOR

For Respondent(s)

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

We find that from the State of Odisha the matters are filed before this Court only with delay. Seldom do we find any justifiable explanation for the delay.

In the special leave petition arising out of CC No.23706/2016 (titled State of Odisha and Anr. v. Dr. (Mrs.) Bidyut Prava Mishra and Anr.) this Court taking note of the conduct of the officials of the State of Odisha in causing delay in filing the matter before this Court and the High Court, passed the following order: Digitally signed by NARENDRA PRASAD Date: 2017.07.26 16:59:53 IST Reason: Signature Not Verified

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"The State of Odisha is in appeal, aggrieved by the order dated 29.02.2016, whereby the High Court declined to condone the delay of 678 days in filing an appeal before the High Court challenging the order passed by the Administrative Tribunal. Before this Court also the special leave petition is filed with a delay of 151 days. The explanation stated in paragraph 3 of the application for condonation of delay, reads as follows:-

"3. Thereafter, the file of the present matter was endorsed to the Law Department and scrutinized at various levels within the various departments of the Petitioners. After due consideration and taking into account of the facts and circumstances of the present case, the petitioners herein decided that the present impugned judgment and final order be challenged before this Hon'ble Court."

The High Court has referred to a previous incident where the High Court declined to condone the delay of 706 days. Having regard to the casual approach made by the State with regard to the litigation in the High Court and the Supreme Court, we direct the Chief Secretary of the State to file an affidavit explaining the following aspects:-

1. Is there any litigation policy in the State? If so, a copy of the policy may be produced.

2. Is there any mechanism to oversee whether any officer has caused deliberate delay so as to defeat a rightful cause?

3. Whether the State has taken any action against

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the erring officers/officials, who have caused the delay?

The affidavit, as above, shall be filed by the Chief Secretary, within two weeks. It shall also be made clear in the affidavit as to what steps State would like to propose, so as to avoid delay in filing the cases before the High Court and the Supreme Court.

The petitioner is also directed to produce a copy of the order passed by the Tribunal.

Post after two weeks."

We are informed by the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner/State that pursuant to the orders extracted above, steps have been taken and erring officials have been proceeded against.

To our surprise, even thereafter, the State of Odisha is before this Court with undue delay.

In Diary No(s). 17864/2017, the petition filed by the State before the High Court was dismissed on the ground of delay of 1232 days. That order is challenged before this Court with a delay of 226 days.

In CC No(s). 9057/2017, there is a delay of 842 days in approaching the High Court and on that ground the petition was dismissed. But for challenging that order there is a delay of 236 days before this Court.

Despite our orders and despite the affidavit filed before this Court, we find that there is no improvement in the system of functioning. Therefore, in public interest, we are constrained to pass the following order:

Hereafter, in case any matter is filed at the instance of the State of Odisha, either before the High Court or before this Court with delay, the officials in the Departments concerned starting with the rank of dealing hand to the highest official in the rank of Principal Secretary shall not be entitled to any pensionary benefits including gratuity for the said period of delay unless

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specifically granted by the High Court or this Court. Needless to say that in the application for condonation of delay the names of all the officers shall be furnished.

We also make it clear that in case the State has suffered any loss on this account, it will be open to the State to proceed against the officials and recover the loss.

A copy of this order be forwarded to the Chief Secretary and the Accountant General of the State of Odisha.

Issue notice on the applications for condonation of delay as well as on the special leave petitions.

(NARENDRA PRASAD) (RENU DIWAN) COURT MASTER (SH) ASST. REGISTRAR