The Supreme Court has dismissed a Special Leave Petition filed by the State Of Orissa as time-barred, where the State had not filed the certified copy of the impugned order in an appeal for a period of 8 years, and there was a delay of 123 days in filing the petition. The Apex Court found the State to be utterly lethargic, tardy and indolent.

The matter emanated from the Managing Committee of a Girls’ High School approaching the State Education Tribunal for the release of grant-in-aid.

The Division Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma held, “We have found the State of Odisha to be utterly lethargic, tardy and indolent not only before the High Court but also before this Court. Notwithstanding that its appeal was dismissed as time-barred by the High Court, this Court has been approached by the State of Odisha four months after expiry of the period of limitation.”

AOR Sanjana Saddy represented the Appellant while AOR Nagendra Kasana AOR represented the Respondent.

Factual Background

The Respondent-Managing Committee of Namatara Girls’ High School had approached the State Education Tribunal, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, with an application under Section 24B of the Odisha Education Act, 1969, for the release of grant-in-aid. The Tribunal had allowed the application by directing the State of Odisha and the Director of Secondary Education, Odisha, to release grant-in-aid in favour of the teaching and non-teaching staff of the school. The order was carried in appeal by the State of Odisha before the Orissa High Court. The appeal was time-barred, and the appeal was not accompanied by a certified copy of the impugned order. Since the presentation of the appeal, for a period of 8 years, the State of Odisha had not filed the certified copy of the impugned order. The High Court dismissed the appeal, citing failure to file the certified copy of the Tribunal’s order as the reason.

The State of Odisha obtained the certified copy of the Tribunal’s order. A week later, the State of Odisha filed an application seeking the recall of the order. Together with such application, an application for condonation of delay seeking condonation of 291 days’ delay was filed. The application for condonation of delay was taken up for consideration by the High Court. The High Court observed that the appeal filed on 16th October, 2015, was inherently defective and the delay in presenting the appeal was in excess of 11 years. Considering the aforesaid position, the application for condonation of delay was rejected, resulting in the application for recall being dismissed as time-barred. The order of the High Court was challenged by the State of Odisha in this special leave petition.

Reasoning

The Bench held that no cause was shown for exercise of discretion in favour of the State of Odisha. The nature of explanation in the application for condonation of delay was such that with much ado, the proceedings could be closed.

The Bench stated, “Condonation of delay cannot be claimed as a matter of right. It is entirely the discretion of the Court whether or not to condone delay. Despite all the latitude that is shown to a “State”, we are of the clear opinion that the cause sought to be shown here by the State of Odisha is not an explanation but a lame excuse. No case for exercise of discretion has been set up.”

The Bench thus rejected the applications for condonation of delay in filing the special leave petition and condonation of delay in re-filing the same. “...the special leave petition stands dismissed as time-barred”, it ordered.

Cause Title: State of Odisha & Ors. v. Managing Committee of Namatara Girls High School (Neutral Citation: 2026 INSC 148)

Appearance

Petitioner: AOR Sanjana Saddy, Advocate Shailja Singh

Respondent: AOR Nagendra Kasana, Advocates Mahendra Kumar Sahoo, A Deb Kumar, A Deepa, Neeta Kasana, Anjana Kasana, Binod Ch Sabat

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Justice Dipankar DattaJustice Satish Chandra Sharma

Tulip Kanth

Assistant Editor

Tulip Kanth is an Assistant Editor at Verdictum having over 5 years of experience in the field of legal journalism and editing. She extensively covers judgments of the Supreme Court, High Courts as well as Tribunals. She has previously worked with a legal publishing website where she oversaw the work of other editors and has also created updates on notifications of different Government Ministries. She holds an English Honours Degree from SGTB Khalsa College, Delhi University and has completed her LLB course with specialisation in Corporate Law from Amity University.