The State Of Jharkhand And Others vs Bishnudeo Mahto
2022 Latest Caselaw 1082 Jhar

       IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
                   (Letters Patent Appellate Jurisdiction)
                          L.P.A. No. 785 of 2019
The State of Jharkhand and others                            ... Appellants

                                  Versus
Bishnudeo Mahto                                              ... Respondent
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CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SHREE CHANDRASHEKHAR HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RATNAKER BHENGRA

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For the Appellants-State : Mr. Mithilesh Singh, G.A.-IV

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Order No.07/Dated 21st March 2022

Five writ petitions were disposed of by a common order dated 22nd November 2018.

2. The writ Court relied on the judgment in W.P.(S) No. 5262 of 2014 titled "Shyam Narayan Dubey and others v. The State of Jharkhand and others" and quashed the order dated 11th February 2012 by which financial upgradation granted to the writ petitioners in the higher scale of pay was reduced to the lower scale of pay.

3. The present Letters Patent Appeal was filed on 22nd November 2019 with delay of 324 days. Vide SR dated 22nd November 2019 as many as 19 defects were pointed out by the Registry which in terms of the order dated 19th February 2020 passed by the learned Joint Registrar (Judl.) the appellants were expected to remove within a period of one week.

4. On 17th March 2021, L.P.A. No. 785 of 2019 was listed before the learned Registrar General but on that day no one appeared on behalf of the appellants. However, the learned Registrar General granted two weeks' further time for removing the defects as pointed out by the Registry.

5. From the office notings, we gather that defect nos. 7, 16 and 17 notified vide SR dated 22nd November 2019 were still not removed by 17th March 2021.

6. The present Letters Patent Appeal appeared on Board for the first time on 6th January 2022 and by an order dated 8 th February 2022 passed on administrative side by Hon'ble the Chief Justice, High Court of Jharkhand, this appeal was assigned to DB-III.

7. I.A. No. 10827 of 2019 has been filed for condonation of delay of 324 days in filing L.P.A. No. 785 of 2019. Mr. Mithilesh Singh, the learned State counsel has taken us through the reasons averred by the appellants for the delay in filing the present Letters Patent Appeal.

8. In course of the arguments, Mr. Mithilesh Singh, the learned State counsel would urge that there is substance in the present Letters Patent Appeal inasmuch as the order passed in W.P.(S) No. 5262 of 2014 is clearly distinguishable on facts.

9. Keeping in mind that normally a statutory appeal should not be rejected for the reason that the appeal was preferred beyond the period of limitation and the relevant considerations while examining an application under section 5 of the Limitation Act would be whether the order under challenge can be sustained in law and the extent of loss and prejudice caused to the appellant if delay in filling the appeal is not condoned by the Court, we direct the Registry to attach the records of W.P.(S) No. 5262 of 2014 though a copy of the order dated 5 th July 2016 passed in the said writ petition has been produced by the learned State counsel.

10. Post this matter on 24th March 2022.

(Shree Chandrashekhar, J.)

(Ratnaker Bhengra, J.) RK/RKM