ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court, on Thursday, dismissed the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government’s three appeals on the basis of being time barred and sent the matter to the KP chief secretary for action.

The chief secretary was directed to take action against those who are responsible for the late filing of appeals in the apex court and submit its report.

A two-judge bench was hearing the KP appeals against the employees of various departments. The bench noted prima facie, it appears deliberately the appeals against the high court judgments are filed late.

The additional advocate general (AAG) stated one appeal in the same case has been filed in time. The chief justice asked the AAG to cite law, which allows that though the appeals are time barred, but these should be clubbed for hearing as the legal point involved.

The AAG said the second appeal of the KP is time barred by only 18 days. The chief justice remarked there is no difference whether the appeal is one day or one year late. He remarked to the AAG that in your appeal, you have accepted this mistake. The AAG said the reason for delay is that they do not get documents from the relevant department in time.

The chief justice said there is nothing on record that the delay was caused due to correspondence with the departments. He said it seems the subordinate officials are not in the control of policy makers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021