| HC rejects private schools panel plea, refuses to condon 10-year delay | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Apr 9: The High Court of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has rejected the plea of the All J&K Unaided Private School Coordination Committee seeking condonation of an extraordinary 3633-day delay in filing an intra-court appeal against a 2016 judgment, holding that no sufficient cause had been shown to justify the prolonged lapse.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Arun Palli and Justice Rajnesh Oswal passed the order while dealing with an application in LPA No. 52/2026. The petitioner had also sought condonation of 545 days' delay in filing an appeal against the September 2, 2024 order by which its application for implementation of the 2016 judgment had been dismissed.
As per the court record, the private schools body had originally filed a writ petition for quashing a direction issued by the Director School Education, Kashmir on January 15, 2016 and a circular dated January 20, 2016 issued by the Board of School Education. It had also sought strict compliance with the Supreme Court directions on safety of schoolchildren in Avinash Malhotra vs Union of India and others.
The Bench noted that the writ petition had been dismissed on February 10, 2016, while the petitioner was left free to challenge the January 15, 2016 direction separately. At the same time, the authorities were directed to ensure implementation of safety measures for students in accordance with law and the Supreme Court judgment. Instead of pursuing that remedy, the petitioner later filed an application seeking implementation of the same judgment, which too was dismissed on September 2, 2024.
The High Court observed that the application seeking condonation of delay disclosed no cause, "much less sufficient cause," for challenging the 2016 order after nearly a decade. The court further pointed out that the applicant had earlier relied upon the very same order in subsequent proceedings, making it clear that at that stage it did not consider itself aggrieved by it.
The Bench also found no justification for condoning the 545-day delay in filing the appeal against the 2024 order. Referring to the petitioner's own stand in earlier proceedings that schools were required to furnish safety NOCs for renewal of registration, the court said the applicant could not be permitted to adopt contradictory positions at different stages of litigation to suit its convenience.
Holding the application devoid of merit, the Division Bench dismissed the condonation plea as well as the accompanying appeal. However, the court left the private schools coordination committee free to avail any other remedy available under law.
(JNF) |
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