NT Reporter
Panaji
The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Tuesday refused to condone a 714-day delay by the Public Works Department (PWD) in challenging enhanced compensation awarded to a Shiroda landowner, holding that government departments cannot treat statutory deadlines casually.
The court rejected the PWD’s explanation that administrative procedures had caused the delay, noting that the case file remained pending at different government offices for months, including 239 days in the Chief Minister’s Office, 99 days with the Executive Engineer, PWD, and 71 days in the PWD Minister’s Office before reaching the Advocate General.
“A perusal of the explanation indicates that the file was pending with the Office of the Executive Engineer, PWD division, for 99 days; thereafter, it lay pending with other authorities till it journeyed its way to the office of the Chief Minister. The file sat there for as many as 239 days, and once again, after making its way through various departments and officials, it reached the PWD Minister on March 11, 2025,” the High
Court said.
The court also said that the file “rested there for another 71 days and proceeded through another four departments/officials before finally reaching the office of the Advocate General and the advocate concerned with the filing of the present appeal”.
The court said that this explanation given for the considerable delay has been characterised as an ‘administrative delay’ by PWD.
The case relates to the acquisition of 3,167 sqm of land in Shiroda for a road project. While the Land Acquisition Officer had awarded compensation of Rs 25.8 per sqm in 2012, the District Court enhanced it to Rs 675 per sqm
in October 2023.
The prescribed period for filing an appeal ended on January 24, 2024, but the PWD approached the High Court only on
January 7, 2026.
The High Court dismissed the PWD’s application, observing that bureaucratic red tape cannot become a routine excuse to bypass limitation laws.
