Delay Caused By Department Employees Who Are Respondents: Punjab & Haryana High Court Condones 1182 Days Delay In UOI's Appeal In Service Case

The High Court also noted that the letter on the basis of which the petition was allowed by the Single Judge was in fact prepared by one of the original petitioners himself.

A Division Bench of Justice Sanjeev Prakash Sharma and Justice Meenakshi I. Mehta held, “...we are satisfied that the delay has occurred at the behest of the employees of the CGHS, who were employed in the department and on account of them, the LPA could not be filed within time.”

Advocate Himanshu Malik appeared for the Appellants and Advocate J.S. Rana appeared for the respondents.

The Court noted, “We are aware of the fact that a department is run by its employees who are responsible for day to day functioning, otherwise the appellant is an abstract body. In the circumstances, where the employees themselves use the provisions of law in a manner so that proceedings may not be taken up in appeal, we find that the reasons are sufficient enough to condone the delay of 1182 days in filing the appeal.”

In the appeal, the Ministry had contested a Single Judge’s order of November 22, 2019, which had approved regularization of service of the employees from the original appointment date based on a letter dated December 17, 2015. The High Court, however, noted the letter was a draft prepared by an employee, and modifications were merely formal.

The Court held that under relevant law, regularization cannot be backdated to the initial appointment. It set aside the Single Judge’s decision. Since the employees had already been regularized, no further relief was granted.

The Court thus condoned the delay and admitted the appeal. Single Judge’s earlier judgment was quashed, regularization was withdrawn.

Cause Title: Secretary Ministry of Health and Family Welfare & Ors. v. Harish Chand & Ors., [2025:PHHC:078342-DB]

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