HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD LUCKNOW SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 349 of 2025 Court No. - 1 HON'BLE RAJAN ROY, J. HON'BLE RAJEEV BHARTI, J. 1. Heard. 2. This is an appeal challenging the judgment and order dated 03.09.2025 passed in Writ A No.7265 of 2023. The prayer made in the writ petition was as under:- "(i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Opposite parties competent to declare the result of the petitioner pertaining to the exam conducted for 53 vacancies of Dark-room Assistant under the Advertisement dated 07.09.2001 prior to the conduct of exam under the fresh Advertisement (Annexure No. 1) dated 15.10.2012 for 355 vacancies of Dark- room Assistant. (ii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the Opposite parties competent that depending upon the outcome of the petitioner result he may be accommodated in the fresh vacancies. (iii) Issue any other writ, order or direction which this Hon'ble court may deem fit and proper under the circumstances of the case." 3. The petition was filed in the year 2023 seeking declaration of the result of examination/selection held in pursuance to an advertisement dated 07.09.2001. Learned Single Judge has dismissed the writ petition impliedly on the ground of delay and laches by observing that learned Counsel for the petitioner has not been able to indicate any statutory Versus Counsel for Appellant(s) : Raj Karan Singh Counsel for Respondent(s) : C.S.C. Shubash Chandra Srivastava .....Appellant(s) State Of U.P. Thru. Addl. Chief Secy. Medical And Health Lko. And Another .....Respondent(s) liability cast upon the opposite parties for declaring the result of the examination which was conducted in the year 2001. 4. It is the admitted position that subsequent selections have also been held. One such advertisement was issued on 15.10.2012 and there is no explanation in the writ petition as to why the appellant-petitioner approached the Writ Court after 22 years. Learned Counsel for the appellant invited our attention to a judgment dated 04.10.2022 passed in a bunch of writ petitions as informed pertaining to the same selection. The leading writ petition being Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.31852 of 2002 wherein some direction was issued to complete the selection process initiated for Group-C in the State in the year 2001 and where the select list was published, the respondent shall issue appointment letters to the selected candidates applying the roaster for reservation in accordance with law. Where the select list has not been published, each shall be published in accordance with the merit and appointment be offered in accordance with law. 5. On being asked, learned Counsel for the appellant informed that the appellant was not a petitioner in the aforesaid writ petition and there is no explanation as to why he did not approach the Court earlier. He has referred to a document dated 18.12.2020 which is a letter written by the Director General Medical Health Services, Uttar Pradesh to a candidate who had appeared in the selection informing him that the file pertaining to the advertisement of 2001 is not available, it got destroyed in a fire in the directorate which occurred on 14.06.2015. Now, 24 years have passed since the selection took place. Subsequent selections have also taken place. The records are not available. There is no explanation as to why the appellant has approached the Writ Court after such delay. We cannot fault the Writ Court for dismissing the writ petition. 6. The appeal is dismissed, accordingly. October 10, 2025 -Piyush- SPLA No. 349 of 2025 2 (Rajeev Bharti,J.) (Rajan Roy,J.) Digitally signed by :- PIYUSH YADAV High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench