The State of Jharkhand through the Secretary, Department of Election v. Amala Murmu
Case brief
What is this about?
L.P.A. No. 720 of 2025 (with I.A. No. 6475 of 2025), High Court of Jharkhand at Ranchi, decided 09.02.2026 (coram: Chief Justice and Rajesh Shankar, J.). Division Bench dismissed the appeal for failure to condone a 395-day delay in challenging the Single Judge's judgment and order dated 22.11.2023 in W.P.(C) No. 3363 of 2023. Related earlier appeal L.P.A. No. 50 of 2024 (Gurupada Hansda) had been dismissed on 23.04.2024 on peculiar facts, with no point of law decided. Keywords: condonation of delay, inordinate delay, no sufficient cause, letters patent appeal, paragraph-14 of I.A., no costs; parties include State election authorities and respondents Amala Murmu and Gurupada Hansda.
What did the court decide?
The delay of 395 days in instituting the L.P.A. is inordinate, admits of no proper explanation, and its inordinate nature is explicitly accepted in paragraph-14 of the I.A.