RANCHI, India, Oct. 17 -- Jharkhand High Court issued the following order on Sept. 16:

1. Heard.

2. By medium of this application, the appellants-State has sought condonation of delay of 242 days that has crept up in filing of the appeal.

3. Going by the averments made in the application, it is abundantly clear that even though the respondents (applicants herein) were communicated the outcome of the order dated 22nd of March 2023 on that day itself, however, the respondents for the first time placed the matter before the Under Secretary after nearly three months on 7th of June 2023 and the same is alleged to have been forwarded to the Secretary of the Department with a detailed noting regarding the outcome of the writ petition along with recommendation for filing of the appeal.

4. The Secretary of the Department is alleged to have considered the matter and referred it to the Law Department, but the date on which such reference has been forwarded has not been mentioned in the application.

5. It is thereafter averred that the file on receipt of by the Law Department was endorsed to the learned Advocate General for obtaining legal opinion as to whether there is any scope for filing appeal against the order dated 22nd of March 2023. 6. On 13th of June 2023, the learned Advocate General formed an opinion and recommended for filing of the Letters Patent Appeal against the impugned order.

7. Following the said recommendations, grounds of appeals were directed to be drafted through Retainer Counsel of the Department on 16th of June 2023 itself and it is alleged that the same took additional time due to his preoccupation and some other assigned matters and came to be submitted after gap of two months in August 2023.

8. It is further averred that after obtaining the draft appeal, the file was endorsed and sent to the Department at Secretary Level for approval of the proposed grounds of appeal in September 2023.

9. It is averred that after approval of the grounds of appeal, the original file filed along with all supporting documents was forwarded to the Office of the Senior Standing Counsel-I who was entrusted to draft and file the appeal in the 1st week of October 2023, and thereafter the appeal was drafted as per the format of the Rules framed by this Court and filed eventually on 11.10.2023 after its receipt on 08.11.2023.

10. It is thereafter averred that due to Deepawali and Chhath Puja, there was vacation from 11.11.2023 to 20.11.2023 and no steps of filing were taken as the Advocate's Office was completely closed and the Advocate's clerk was out of station during the Puja vacation.

11. It is only on reopening of the Court on 21st of November 2023 that the memo of appeal was prepared for filing, but due to several illegible pages which were required to be typed of, which took another three weeks to obtain the typed copies and thereafter the appeal was finally filed on 22nd of December 2023 which caused delay of 242 days in filing of the appeal.

*Rest of the document can be viewed at: (https://hcservices.ecourts.gov.in/ecourtindiaHC/cases/display_pdf.php?filename=tuqye3PhFs%2BBDn75ghiOpEVR4OUHkTCqO6NDhV9WJrEmzO8EjBQF2WXxmyjANhCm&caseno=LPA/721/2023&cCode=1&cino=JHHC010452612023&state_code=7&appFlag=)

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