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M/S Essel Infra Projects Ltd. v. The State of Madhya Pradesh

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 368Decided 19 Apr 2018
Civil Appeal No. 4250 of 2018
Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel · Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman

Background

The appellant complained that proceedings before the Tribunal constituted under the M.P. Madhyastham Adhikaran Adhiniyam, 1983 (a state law for speedy resolution of works-contract disputes) were taking up to five years or more to conclude, defeating the law's purpose of speedy dispute resolution. The State's counsel did not dispute that such delays were occurring in some cases. The Supreme Court granted leave in this appeal specifically and only to examine whether a direction was needed to ensure timeliness in disposal of such Tribunal proceedings.

Decision Breakdown

The Court held that, given the legislation's object of providing a speedy dispute-resolution mechanism, the State must monitor timeliness, treating one to two years as a reasonable benchmark for Tribunal proceedings, with revision petitions before the High Court to be disposed of within a further two years. It directed that the Tribunal's Chairman ensure no unreasonable delay occurs, escalate any shortage of Benches to the State Government for prompt action, and that parties may approach the Chief Justice of the High Court if these timelines are not met. While clarifying these timelines are not strictly mandatory, the Court referred to its related judgment in Krishnakant Tamrakar v. State of Madhya Pradesh and disposed of the appeal entirely on these directions, which was the only question for which leave had been granted.

Lesson Learnt

Even without striking down a law, the Supreme Court can issue practical, time-bound administrative directions to fix chronic delays in a specialised dispute-resolution forum, giving litigants and authorities a concrete benchmark (here, one to two years) and an escalation path through the High Court's Chief Justice.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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