MISSING FILE NO EXCUSE FOR DELAY : COURT TELLS GOA GOVERNMENT

The high court of Bombay at Goa declined to accept the government's plea to condone the delay of 772 days for filing an appeal on the ground that the concerned 'file was missing'. The government had approached the court after the forest department, in a lower court, lost claim over a property admeasuring 1.73 lakh sq m in Sanvordem in 2007. The government prayed before the court in 2009 to condone the delay to file an appeal challenging the judgment passed by the district court in Margao on January 31, 2007. The district court had ordered that one Minguel Fernandes was the owner of the property in a suit contested by the government claiming that the property was declared as a reserved forest and it belonged to the forest department. However, the government failed to file appeal within the stipulated period. Later, the government filed an application before the high court to condone the delay to file an appeal on the ground that the missing file was traced after one and a half years and that subsequently additional time was required to finalize the appeal. Rejecting the government's application, Justice R M Savant observed thus: "The tracing of the file should have been done with some urgency and why the file could be traced only after a period of almost one and a half years has not been explained beyond saying that the file had to be located from amongst the 3000 files which are in the office of Chief Conservator of Forests. The said explanation in my view is not bonafide and has just been given to cover up the delay." The facts as disclosed show that the approach of the officers were most casual and "did not have the seriousness that was required befitting the case", the court remarked. The court also held that one would have expected the state government to move expeditiously in the matter in the context of the decree (judgment) passed by the lower court. The 'limitation' for filing the appeal was long over in May 2007, however, no attempt was made to expedite the process of filing the appeal, the court noted.