No Free Pass For Government Delays, Says Indore High Court After State’s 6-Year-Late Appeal In Dhar Land Dispute Rejected

The Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court has rejected the state government's six-year delay in appealing a landmark land dispute case, emphasizing that bureaucratic negligence cannot grant preferential treatment. Justice Vinay Saraf dismissed a civil revision petition filed by Brajesh Singh and others, ruling that the State machinery cannot claim immunity from statutory limitation periods due to administrative inefficiency.

The contentious matter involves a small 0.089-hectare land parcel in Kod village, Dhar district. Originally, a trial court ruled in favor of the petitioners in January 2017, entitling them to mutate their names over the land and granting a permanent injunction. Despite this, State authorities did not take any action until the petitioners initiated execution proceedings years later.

The government only applied for a certified copy and filed a first appeal in March 2023, a gap of six years and two months. The Indore High Court set aside the State's delay condonation, rejecting the government's defense that delays were due to securing sanctions and the value of public land. The court emphasized that administrative lethargy cannot justify reopening settled rights, and ruled that the lower court's decision to condone the delay was incorrect.