A fine of Rs.50,000 was imposed on the government for the delay in filing the Special Leave Petition (SLP) by the State higher education department by the Supreme Court. The dilly-dally habit of the State Government has lead to shell out a fine imposed by the Apex court.
The department was expected to file an appeal in the High Court against the OTE order within 30 days, as per the norms.
Officers took 20 months to file an appeal which lead the High court to dismiss the appeal on the grounds of the limitation or delay in the filing of appeal on April 18, 2018.
The officers took more than 400 days to file it in the apex court along with a plea for condoning of delay when the SLP was expected to be filed within 90 days.
The Supreme Court on October 16 condoned the delay, subject to the petitioner-state depositing sum of Rs.50, 000 in its Registry within four weeks.
Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat while issuing order said that “If the amount is not deposited within the stipulated time, the SLP shall stand dismissed without further reference to the court”. Upon deposit, the amount shall be invested in a fixed deposit receipt in a nationalized bank initially for a period of 90 days with auto-renewal facility”, while posting the matter to December 16.
The department sent a communication to its lawyer along with Rs.50, 000 on Thursday in the shape of a bank draft for depositing it with the registry of the Supreme Court.
