SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Before:- S. Rajendra Babu and S.N. Variava, JJ.

Civil Appeal No. 4925 Of 1998. D/d. 14.11.2000.

Jharkhand Mazdoor Sangh - Appellant

Versus

Presiding Officer & Ors. - Respondents

Delay and Latches - Inordinate and unexplained delay of five years in filing writ Petition - Delay due to illness of Secretary of Mazdoor Sangh - Held, illness (bronchial asthma) of Secretary was not of such nature so as to prevent union of workmen from filing petition- High Court rightly dismissed petition on ground of delay and lathes.

[Para 2]

ORDER

S. Rajendra Babu, J. - Aggrieved by an award made on 30.8.1989, a Writ petition was preferred which came to be dismissed on the ground that there has been inordinate and unexplained delay of five years. An appeal filed against the same, was also dismissed.

2. Learned counsel for the appellant submitted that the workmen on whose behalf the industrial dispute arose were uneducated and illiterate and,therefore, some latitude should be shown. It is also submitted that the reason as to why the writ petition could not be filed in time against the award immediately on its passing is the illness of the Secretary of the Jharkhand Mazdoor Sangh. If that was so , the illness(bronchial asthma) of the Secretary was not of such a nature so as to prevent the union of workmen from filing a writ petition before the High Court. The Secretary may have been intermittently ill but she could have managed to file a writ petition before the High Court in time. Even otherwise, we do not find there is any good reason to interfere with the award made by the tribunal as the findings recorded by it are all questions of fact after due consideration of the material before it.

3. Therefore, we find absolutely no reason to upset the order made by the High Court.

The appeal is dismissed.

Appeal dismissed.