Lucknow, The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Thursday dismissed 11 special appeals filed by the Uttar Pradesh government, taking a strict view of delays in their filing and held that no sufficient cause had been shown to justify the lapse.
Rejecting the special appeals, the two-judge bench observed that the government, equipped with an organised administrative machinery, cannot take shelter behind routine procedural delays or “red tape”.
“Mere movement of files cannot constitute sufficient cause,” the court remarked.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Jaspreet Singh passed the order on a batch of special appeals filed by the state government.
With the dismissal of the special appeals, a large number of junior engineers in the Public Works Department have secured major relief, as they will now be entitled to consequential service benefits, including coverage under the Old Pension Scheme .
The state had challenged a single-judge order of September 9, 2025, which directed that junior engineers, initially engaged as daily wagers or work-charged employees between 1984 and 1989, be regularised from 2001 instead of 2006.
The revised date of regularisation paved the way for additional service benefits and OPS eligibility, entailing a significant financial implication for the state exchequer.
In the course of the hearing, the two-judge bench noted that all 11 special appeals had been filed beyond the prescribed limitation period, with delays ranging from 93 to 195 days. Seeking condonation of delay, the state cited reasons such as file movement, procedural formalities, holidays and the legislative session.
The bench further said that while considering applications for condonation of delay, courts are not required to examine the merits of the case but only whether a satisfactory explanation for the delay has been made out.
Emphasising accountability, the court said that condoning such delays would amount to encouraging negligence and indifference on the part of government departments, and would undermine certainty in the justice delivery system, adversely affecting litigants.
With this, the court rejected all delay condonation applications, resulting in the automatic dismissal of all 11 special appeals filed by the state government.
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