Mojib Ansari vs State of Bihar and Others

When the appeal was called out we were informed to our dismay that the records of the writ case are no longer available: only the order-sheet, including the judgment and order coming under appeal was preserved but the rest of the records, that is to say the writ petition and its annexure and the counter affidavits were burnt by the Record Section. The responsibility apparently lies with the concerned staff in the Letters Patent Appeal Section. The appeal was admitted for hearing on 17.4.1997 but the L.P.A. Section called for the records of the writ case as late as on 12.12.2005 when the appeal was listed for hearing. In the meanwhile the Record Section of the Court apparently unaware that an appeal from the writ case remained pending in the Court destroyed the records of the writ case at the expiry of the prescribed period. For hearing the appeal therefore we used the copies of the orders of the courts below supplied to us by the Counsel for the respective parties, of course, with their mutual consent. Though we feel greatly disturbed at this dereliction of duty in the office of the Court, we do not wish to go into this matter further. This is only in the hope that in future we shall not come across such gross mistakes: even with regard to the pending appeals the concerned staff should ensure that the relevant records are duly preserved for use of the Court at the time of hearing of the appeals.