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Surender Mohan vs The State of Haryana

Review Petition (Civil) · 2022 INSC 41Decided 11 Jan 2022
Review Petition (Civil) No.1407 of 2021
Uday Umesh Lalit · Ajay Rastogi

Background

The petitioner's special leave petitions before the Supreme Court had earlier been dismissed on the ground of limitation, since there was a delay of 2,659 and 3,017 days (roughly 7 to 8 years) in filing them, and no satisfactory explanation for such an extraordinary delay was offered. The petitioner then filed this review petition asking the Court to reconsider that dismissal.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the grounds raised in the review petition and found no error apparent on the face of the record that would justify interfering with its earlier order. Given the extremely long, unexplained delay of several years in approaching the Court in the first place, the Bench held there was no basis to reopen the matter and dismissed the review petition.

Lesson Learnt

Courts strictly enforce limitation periods for filing appeals; a delay running into several thousand days, left unexplained, will not be excused, and a review petition cannot be used to get a fresh chance to explain away such delay after the original petition has already been dismissed on that ground.

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

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