APPLICATION FOR CONDONING THE DELAY IN RE-FILING THE SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CRIMINAL MISC. PETITION NO.………………..OF 2009

SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION (Crl.) NO. …………………OF 2009

IN THE MATTER OF:

The State of Bihar …Petitioner

Versus

Anand Mohan & Ors …Respondents

APPLICATION FOR CONDONING THE DELAY IN RE-FILING THE SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION

HON’BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE OF INDIA

AND HIS COMPANION JUDGES OF THE

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

The humble petition of the petitioner above named,

MOST RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH:

1. That the petitioner has filed a petition under Article 136 of the Constitution of India for the grant of Special Leave to Appeal against the impugned final Judgment & Order dated 10.12.2008 of the High Court of Judicature at Patna passed in Death Reference No. 12 of 2007 and 7 other criminal appeals wherein the Hon’ble High Court has refused to confirm the death sentence awarded to the three accused. The conviction of accused Anand Mohan has been upheld but instead of death penalty he has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life. All the 6 other co-accused (including Prof. Arun Kumar and Akhlak Ahmad who were sentenced to death) have been acquitted.

2. That the petitioner in the accompanying Special Leave Petition have already set out in details the facts and the circumstances of the case leading up to the filing of the Special Leave Petition and the same are not being repeated here for the sake of brevity to avoid repetitiveness. However, the petitioner craves leave of this Hon’ble Court to refer and rely upon the same at the time of hearing of the instant application.

3. That the accompanying Special Leave Petition was filed in the Registry of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the third week of March 2009 and the same was returned after scrutiny due to certain defects.

4. That the annexures like FIR and Deposition of the witnesses were in vernacular language and were required to be translated to English. Translation of the vernacular annexures took time.

5. That some instruction regarding the matter was to be sought from the Home Department, Government of Bihar. As the Home Department was busy with the Lok Sabha Election in the month of April and May 2009 so the instruction could be received only in the last week of May 2009.

6. That the matter being one of the six batch matters it took some time in the office of the Standing Counsel for preparing the matter for re-filing.

7. That it is respectfully submitted that in view of the above stated facts the present application for condonation of delay in re-filing the Special Leave Petition may be allowed by this Hon'ble Court.

8. That the chronological events may be considered by this Hon’ble Court as sufficient explanation for the delay in re-filing the Special Leave Petition as the delay has been caused due to administrative reasons and not due to any willful laces or negligence on the part of the petitioner, State.

9. That the Hon'ble Supreme Court has held in several binding decisions that the delay due to bureaucratic process or administrative reasons of delay may constitute a “sufficient cause” as required by section 5 of Limitation Act 1963.

10. That the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of State of U.P. vs Harish reported as (1996) 9 SCC 309 condoned a delay of 480 days in filing Special Leave Petition in view of the slowness of bureaucratic process and in view of the merit of the case. Again in the case of State of H.P. Vs. Satya Devi reported as (2005) 12 SCC 446 held that the delay by the State in filing a petition may be condoned if the explanation for the delay is administrative process and not willful laches or negligence.

11. That the present application is being filed for condoning the delay in re-filing the Special Leave Petition.

12. That there has been no intentional laches or delay on the part of the petitioner in re-filing the Special Leave Petition.

13. That under such circumstances the delay of days in re-filing this appeal may be condoned as this is a fit case to be considered on merits specially when the petitioners have a very good case on merit, otherwise grave prejudice will be caused to the petitioners.

PRAYER

It is, therefore, most respectfully prayed that this Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to:

(a) Condone the delay of days in re-filing the Special Leave Petition; And

(b) Pass any other or further orders as may be deemed fit and proper in the facts and circumstances of this case.

FILED BY:

(DURGESH RAMCHANDRA GUPTA)

DATED: .07.2009 Advocate for the petitioner

NEW DELHI

APPLICATION FOR CONDONING THE DELAY IN RE-FILING THE SPECIAL LEAVE PETITION

IN THE MATTER OF:

List of Formats