Telangana High Court rejects TGSRTC appeal, slams ‘negligence and deliberate suppression of facts’

TGSRTC had filed an appeal against a Motor Accident Claims Tribunal award granted to a claimant who suffered 100 per cent functional disability. However, the appeal was filed with an unexplained delay of 629 days, which the corporation attempted to explain as “administrative delay.”

During the proceedings, the court found the explanation to be a series of continuous lapses. The Tribunal’s order was passed on May 5, 2023, but the corporation’s copy application for the certified copy of the judgment and decree was made four months later.

The certified copy was ready within a month, but it took another three months to reach the legal cell. The file was then left with the standing counsel for over nine months before he tendered his resignation, and then presented it to the court after the newly appointed standing counsel drafted the grounds of Appeal.

The judges minutely dissected the chain of events, stating, “At every stage, there is negligence, inaction and lack of bona fides on the part of the petitioners/appellants (TGSRTC).”

They categorically rejected the corporation’s plea for a liberal interpretation, asserting that the facts of the case did not align with the precedent cited by the TGSRTC’s counsel.

It was revealed that the corporation had deliberately failed to disclose that execution proceedings were already pending before the Tribunal. TGSRTC only filed its appeal after the trial court issued notices and imposed costs on the corporation.

“We are unable to appreciate the suppression by the Corporation, which ought to have been a model employer with a larger heart,” said the judgment, as the bench dismissed the application to condone the delay and, as a consequence, rejected the appeal itself.

The court determined that the TGSRTC’s cause for the delay was insufficient, stating that condonation is not a matter of entitlement, especially when a delay creates “equity in favour of another.” The application to condone the delay was dismissed, and as a consequence, the main appeal was also rejected.

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