Cuttack: Govt authorities cannot keep citizens waiting indefinitely on applications requiring administrative decisions, Orissa high court has observed, saying official inaction only fuels avoidable litigation and burdens the judiciary.The court was hearing a petition filed by a lessee of a sand quarry on the Subarnarekha river under Saras Kana tehsil in Mayurbhanj district. The petitioner had in 2023 applied to the Saras Kana tehsil office to surrender the quarry lease, expressing his unwillingness to continue operations.The authorities sought certain documents and asked him to appear before them. Due to ill health the petitioner could not attend in person but submitted the required papers. However, three years had elapsed but the petitioner’s earnest money deposit (EMD) was not returned.Delivering its verdict, a division bench of Chief Justice Harish Tandon and Justice M S Raman recently directed the state authorities to refund the petitioner’s deposit with 6% annual interest after adjusting any legitimate dues.Taking exception to the manner in which the application remained pending for three years, the judges remarked, “The authorities are showing dormant attitude in responding to such queries and keeping the fate of an application in lurch.”The court also noted that the records placed before it did not indicate any pending govt dues that could justify withholding a decision on the surrender request. “If the petitioner intended to surrender, it is an ardent duty of the authority to take a prompt decision thereupon and cannot be in a slumber for all time to come,” the bench said in its judgment on June 23.Observing that remanding the matter to the authorities would only encourage another round of litigation, the judges said such an exercise would unnecessarily add to the court’s burden. The bench, therefore, directed the authorities to immediately refund the EMD, subject to adjustment of dues, along with interest at 6% per annum from one month after the surrender application until the date of payment. It ordered the entire exercise to be completed within two months of the communication of the judgment.
