There is a provision in the Supreme Court Rules, which lays down as under:
“… where the matter filed on scrutiny is found to be defective and a diary number has been generated, one copy of the Petition and Court Fee Stamp tendered shall be retained and the defects shall be communicated to the petitioner. If the defects are not removed till 90 days from the date of communication of the defects, the matter shall be listed with Office Report on default before the Judge in Chambers for appropriate orders.”
Further, under the Supreme Court Rules, the Chamber Judge has the power to allow an application for condonation of delay in re-filing where the delay exceeds 60 days from the date of notifying the defects.
Thus, if the defects in the filing of the SLP have not been removed and if the case has not been refiled till 90 days after removing defects, the case is listed before the Chamber Judge, who then decides about the fate of the case. The Chamber Judge has the power to condone delay in refiling of case after removing defects, in appropriate cases.
So, legally speaking, if the Government (which is petitioner in your case) is interested, it can still file an application for condonation of delay in removing the defects and refiling the case. If it can provide some good justifiable reasons, the court can still condone such delay.
You can file a caveat in the Supreme Court, if you are interested, so that you get a chance to be heard by the Supreme Court if any adverse order is to be passed at the interim stage.
Dr. Ashok Dhamija is a New Delhi based Supreme Court Advocate and author of law books. Read more about him by clicking here. List of his Forum Replies. List of his other articles. List of his Quora Answers. List of his YouTube Videos.
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