IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA       CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

   CIVIL APPEAL NO.8460 OF 2009 (Arising out of SLP © No.24113 of 2009)

Security Printing & Minting  Corporation of India Ltd.                …Appellant

VERSUS The Workmen through the  General Secretary & Ors.               …Respondents

O R D E R

Leave granted.   

This is an appeal from an order passed by a  

Division Bench of the High Court at Bombay in LPA  

No. 202 of 2008, by which an order of a learned  

Single Judge passed in W.P. No. 5400 of 1996 was  

affirmed.  The Writ Petition filed by the appellant  

was dismissed for default as it was not attended by  

the learned counsel for the appellant at the time  

of hearing.   

An  application  for  restoration  of  the  Writ  

Petition  was  filed  in  which  the  reason  for  not  

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attending  was  that  the  clerk  of  the  learned  

counsel, who looked after the matter, missed the  

matter on board.  The learned Single Judge rejected  

the  application  and  being  aggrieved,  a  Letters  

Patent Appeal was filed, which was also dismissed  

by the Division Bench of the High Court.  

Feeling  aggrieved  by  the  said  orders,  the  

appellants have come to this Court by way of a  

Special Leave Petition, which on grant of leave,  

was heard in presence of the learned counsel for  

the parties.  Having heard the learned counsel for  

the parties and after going through the application  

for restoration and the reasons mentioned therein,  

we  are  satisfied  with  the  reasons  given  by  the  

appellants in their application for restoration for  

not  attending  the  writ  petition  at  the  time  of  

hearing.   

For the reasons aforesaid, the impugned orders  

are set aside.  The appeal is allowed and the writ  

petition is restored to its original file, which  

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will  be  heard  on  merits  subject  to  payment  of  

Rs.20,000/- as costs by the appellant to be paid to  

the respondents within two months from this date.  

In default, this appeal shall stand dismissed and  

the order of the High Court shall stand affirmed.  

In the event, the amount is paid, the writ petition  

shall be heard on merits within a period of three  

months from the date of depositing the amount, as  

mentioned hereinabove. There will be no order as to  

costs.    

 ……….………………………………………J.   [Tarun Chatterjee]

New Delhi;   …………………………………………………….J. December 11, 2009.  [Surinder Singh Nijjar]

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