Gujarat High Court
State Of Gujarat vs Rashmikant Pramodrai Shukla on 8 July, 2025
Author: A. S. Supehia
Bench: A.S. Supehia
NEUTRAL CITATION
C/CA/3535/2025 ORDER DATED: 08/07/2025
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY) NO. 3535 of
2025
In F/LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 18495 of 2025
With
R/CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 3536 of 2025
In
F/LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 18626 of 2025
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STATE OF GUJARAT & ORS.
Versus
RASHMIKANT PRAMODRAI SHUKLA
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Appearance:
MR AKASH GUPTA, AGP for the Applicant(s) No. 1,2,3,4
ULLASH N GOHIL(8357) for the Respondent(s) No. 1
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CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.S. SUPEHIA
and
HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE R. T. VACHHANI
Date : 08/07/2025
COMMON ORAL ORDER
(PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.S. SUPEHIA)
1. At the outset, the learned advocates appearing for the respective parties have submitted that the issue is squarely covered by the catena of decisions of this Court. One of which is tendered by the learned AGP being the order dated 17.01.2023 passed in Letters Patent Appeal No.30 of 2023.
2. The present applications have been filed seeking condonation of delay of 373 days. We find that a huge delay of 373 days is not appropriately explained and due to inter se communication amongst the Departments, the delay has been caused.
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3. The judgment of this Court was delivered on 03.05.2024 and thereafter, legal opinion of the concerned Law Officer was sought by the Department vide communications dated 06.05.2024, 25.06.2024 and 12.072024 and the same was received on 30.07.2024, which was forwarded to the Commissioner of Technical Education on 21.08.2024 to prefer an appeal against the judgment and order dated 03.05.2024. Thus, from 06.05.2024 to 21.08.2024, three months have been consumed by inter-se communications. Interestingly, the Education Department forwarded the same opinion to the Legal Department after a period of three months i.e. 31.08.2024. The Legal Department returned the proposal to the Education Department on 27.09.2024 seeking further clarification from the Education Department. Thereafter, the Commissioner of Technical Education forwarded a fresh proposal on 11.10.2024 in view of a new State Litigation Policy. The Legal Department, on 18.11.2024, denied the proposal to file an appeal and sent back to the Education Department. Thus, on 18.11.2024 after a period of more than six months, the Legal Department denied the proposal to file the appeal.
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4. The Education Department, despite the same, asked for reason of delay with relevant proof from the Technical Education by e-mail on 19.11.2024, and accordingly, the Education Department forwarded the file to the State Litigation Committee for approval of appeal on 28.11.2024 and accordingly, the approval was granted on 10.12.2024. The Education Department forwarded the file to the Legal Department for getting approval by the State Litigation Committee on 16.12.2024 and the approval was received on 20.12.2024.
5. Thus, the aforesaid inter se communications exposit lack of coordination between the departments. Despite the Legal Department having refused to file an appeal, there was further communication undertaken by the Education Department. Thus, it appears that right from 06.05.2024 till December, 2024, the Department went on communicating with each other and there without taking concrete steps to file an appeal. Thus, the steps and reasons which are assigned in the present application seeking condonation of delay of 373 days, are required to be deprecated, as it appears that no concrete decision was taken Page 3 of 4 Uploaded by MOHMMEDSHAHID(HC01113) on Fri Jul 11 2025 Downloaded on : Fri Jul 11 23:07:28 IST 2025 NEUTRAL CITATION C/CA/3535/2025 ORDER DATED: 08/07/2025 undefined by either of the departments for all these intervening period to directly file an appeal before this Court, in case the issue involved was required urgent hearing.
6. Under the circumstances, the present applications seeking delay of 373 days have to be rejected, more particularly in wake of the fact that the issue is squarely covered by the catena of decisions, the one which is referred before us being the order dated 17.01.2023 passed in Letters Patent Appeal No.30 of 2023 and allied matters.
7. Hence, the present applications stand rejected.
Sd/- .
(A. S. SUPEHIA, J)
Sd/- .
(R. T. VACHHANI, J)
MOHMMEDSHAHID/3/4
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