Undue delay in deciding statutory applications can justify a writ direction for disposal within a fixed time.

Where a statutory sales tax application remains pending for an inordinate period without any satisfactory explanation, a writ court may direct the authority to dispose of it within a fixed time. Here, the application under section 22 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 had been heard on several occasions but was left undecided for years, and no counter-affidavit was filed to explain the delay. The court treated the matter as fit for final disposal and directed the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial), Sales Tax, to decide the pending application within two months unless it had already been decided.

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Issues: Whether a writ court should direct the sales tax appellate authority to decide a pending application when the application had remained undecided for an inordinate period and no explanation for the delay was furnished.

Analysis: The application under section 22 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 had been pending for several years, and the record showed that it had been heard on multiple occasions without decision. Despite an given to explain the delay, no counter-affidavit was filed. In these circumstances, the delay was held to be inordinate and undue, and the writ petition was treated as fit for final disposal under the second proviso to rule 2 of Chapter XXII of the Rules of the Court. The proper course was to issue a direction requiring the authority to decide the application without further delay.

Conclusion: The writ petition was allowed and a direction was issued to the Assistant Commissioner (Judicial), Sales Tax, Ghaziabad to decide the pending application within two months of production of a certified copy of the order, unless it had already been decided.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory application has remained undecided for an inordinate period without satisfactory explanation, the writ court may direct the authority to dispose of it within a fixed time.

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