Doctrine of Delay and Laches - The Current Judicial Trend

Time has proved to be one of the most valued assets to humankind. “Justice delayed is justice denied” is one proverb prevailing in the arena of judicial decision making since the establishment of the judicial system. With time passing by, justice has evolved from the side of both the petitioner / appellant / complainant as well as respondent/opp. party. Every party to litigation has their own definition of justice and each definition is different from the other. However, the only factor common in all these definitions is the time taken to reach such justice. The “Doctrine of Delay and Latches” mainly deals with justice from the perspective of respondent/opp. party. It gives the petitioner / appellant / complainant a fair chance to express their displeasure against an Order passed by the judicial authority by making an appeal to the next higher judicial forum within a stipulated period of time. Beyond that, it empowers the judiciary to ask for a reasonable explanation from the petitioner / appellant / complainant as to what restricted them to express their displeasure or dissatisfaction within such a time frame. The doctrine creates two situations: (1) Where the reason provided is acceptable and genuine, the judiciary, by using its discretionary power can condone such delay or (2) If such reasoning given is not, the judiciary is not bound to entertain such dissatisfaction. The essential idea behind this is to ensure that the respondent/opp. party should not suffer due to any sort of lacuna of the petitioner /appellant/complainant. This paper deals with how this doctrine is used in the current time by the judiciary to avoid long lingering litigation and to ensure protection to the interest of the party who has acted reasonably and prudently. There is an analysis of the trend being followed by the Hon’ble Supreme Court as well as High Courts in implementing this Doctrine.