the state of bihar and Ors. v. m/s komal construction chhawani
Case brief
What is this about?
Patna High Court CAV order dt. 01-05-2025 (Khatim Reza, J): condonation of delay refused for ten State of Bihar Civil Revisions against Bihar Public Works Contract Disputes Arbitration Tribunal Awards; Section 5 Limitation Act / Section 13 Bihar Public Works Contracts Disputes Arbitration Tribunal Act 2008; file-movement and bureaucratic delay not sufficient cause; certified copies sought after limitation; Government entitled to no different yardstick; Postmaster General v. Living Media India Ltd. (2012) 3 SCC 563 followed; Borse Brothers (2021) 6 SCC 460 and Pathapati Subba Reddy 2024 SCC OnLine SC 513 applied; unclean-hands finding in C.R. No. 20 of 2019; all ten C.R.s and limitation I.As dismissed.
What did the court decide?
Across all ten cases there was delay at every stage and no explanation for the delay except a recital of the dates of movement of files; the explanations amounted to no sufficient cause, only a lame excuse, and the delay petitions therefore fail.