Ashish Sharma vs H.P. State Forest Development Corporation Limited & Another

Ajay Mohan Goel, J

In the present case, the petitioner has approached the Court praying for relief that the respondents be directed to re-engage him after accepting his re-joining as an Un-Skilled Worker and also to treat the period when he was on leave on account of his illness as leave of kind due avail to him.

Petitioner has approached the Court after two years as from the date when the cause of action accrued. The case of the petitioner is that he was engaged as an Un-Skilled Worker vide Annexure P-1, dated 13.04.2022. He fell ill immediately thereafter and could not attend the job after 22.04.2022. After he recovered from illness in the month of August, 2022, he approached the Authorities concerned, but they have not allowed him to join. Incidentally, alongwith the Writ Petition there is no document appended from which it can be inferred that the petitioner indeed was suffering from Jaundice, as is his case, from the month of April, 2022 upto the month of August, 2022. Today, learned counsel for the petitioner has handed over to the Court certain medical certificates which have been issued in his favour to demonstrate that the petitioner was medically unfit. This also includes a medical certificate that has been issued by a retired Ayurvedic Medical Officer, Mubarakpur, District Una, H.P., dated 11.08.2022. The Court has very serious doubt about the veracity of this certificate and with regard to the authority of this Doctor to issue such kind of certificate.

Be that as it may, fact of the matter remains that the petitioner has approached this Court qua the issues raised in the Writ Petition after a considerable delay of more than two years and there is no cogent explanation given in the Writ Petition as to why the petitioner could not approach the Court earlier.

In this backdrop, this Court is of the considered view that as the case is hit by gross delays and latches, the petition is liable to be dismissed on this count. What is weighing with the Court is that it is not the case of the petitioner that his services were dispensed with or terminated by the respondent-Corporation. His own case is that after he was appointed vide letter dated 13.04.2022, he could not report for duty after 22.04.2022 on account of his illness. Now, there is no iota of evidence placed on record, from which it can be inferred that the petitioner ever intimated the employer that he had fallen sick either in the month of April, 2022 or in the following months. The first representation which he purportedly made to the respondent-Corporation is dated 12.08.2022. Thereafter also, he slept over the matter and made another representation after a lapse of more than one and half years, i.e. on 15.03.2024, which was followed by filing of this Writ Petition in the month of September, 2024. The act and conduct of the petitioner does not demonstrate that he was vigilant about his rights and as this Court is of the considered view that entertaining this petition after a lapse of two years would prejudice the respondent-Corporation, the petition is being dismissed on the ground of delays and latches. Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, also stand disposed of accordingly.