CHANDRAKANT POPARTLAL NIMAVAT Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) is Letters Patent appeal is directed against the order of the learned Single Judge in Special Civil Application No. 1274 of 1990. The petitioner in the Special Civil Application is the appellant in this Letters Patent Appeal. The respondents in the Special Civil Application are the respondents in this Letters Patent Appeal.

(2.) The appellant by preferring the Special Civil Application wanted this Court to direct the respondents to consider the appellant for promotion to the post of Forester, from the date, his juniors got promotion. The fact remains that the promotions of others happened in 1982 and if the prayer of the appellant has got to be countenanced, all that happened in the service parlance from 1982 will have to be set at nought, and certainly circumstances bringing in prejudice to very many personnel will surface. The learned Single Judge took note of a very relevant factor, namely, laches which certainly disentitle the appellant from seeking the highly prerogative writ remedy before this Court It has been always countenanced that in service parlance utmost expedition in seeking the writ process is the rule and this Court will be in order not to look into stale claims and try to unsettle settled matters. The present case, in our view, is a classical example of that position. In this Letters Patent Appeal directed against the order of the learned Single Judge, when he dismissed the Special Civil Application, Mr. Japee, learned counsel appearing for the appellant submits that his client had been making representations to the respondents. The only representation to which our attention was drawn was made in the year 1983. Even assuming that making of bare representations could be annexed with any sanctity for the purpose of washing of laches, even this resort to representation process seemed to have stopped in 1983 and the appellant has approached this Court only in 1989. In these circumstances the learned Single Judge was right in dismissing the Special Civil Application. We confirm the order of the learned Single Judge passed in the Special Civil Application and we dismiss this Letters Patent Appeal.

(3.) However, if the appellant has got independent claims for future promotions about which we are not apprised of anything, it is for the appellant to seek such chances and we have no say in the matter.