The Supreme Court has repeatedly chided Karnataka government officials for filing appeals with a lot of delays, just to get "certificates of dismissal".
Over the last one week, in one such case, the state government was slapped with a penalty of Rs 10,000, while in another, it invited severe comments from the court.
The bench headed by Justice Sanjay K Kaul took strong exceptions to several such delayed appeals being filed by the Karnataka government very often.
"We must note with regret the manner in which such matters are conducted and the object again appears to be to just invite certificate of dismissal from this court in view of the aforesaid facts - what we have categorized on numerous occasions as certificate cases," said the bench in one of its orders.
In this case, the state had sought to challenge a high court order of July 2019 for releasing a person, who was detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act.
The bench said the time taken by the state government officials in filing an appeal in a detention matter has itself left the matter without remedy. In another case, the court imposed a penalty of Rs 10,000 for filing a case after a delay of more than 600 days.
The bench noted that this was yet another case in which authorities slept on the matter, "possibly deliberately" and then a "certificate of dismissal" is asked for so that a quietus can be given by the concerned department.
"All this show a dismal picture and judicial time has been wasted. It is time that authorities are made to pay for wasting judicial time in a manner like this," maintained the court.
It then turned down a request by the state's Additional Advocate General Nikhil Goel to take a lenient view.
"A cost of Rs 10,000 is imposed on the state government. It is open for the state government to recover this from the delinquent officials for this misadventure," ordered the bench.
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