New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS): The Delhi High Court has accepted the unconditional apology of litigants who failed to present the court's stay order before the District Judge during the listing for final arguments.

Justice Tushar Rao Gedela noted the seriousness of the mistake, saying that higher court orders should be communicated to the relevant court to be binding.

"The mistake is definitely a serious one since the order of the higher court ought to have been necessarily communicated to the Court upon which the said order would have been binding,” he said.

The applicants -- young advocates in the early stages of their practice and first-generation lawyers -- were granted an ex-parte stay by the court earlier. However, the order was not presented before the District Judge as required.

In light of this, show-cause notices were issued to the applicants and their counsels by the District Judge for non-disclosure, deeming it a serious issue.

The applicants tendered their unconditional apology, but the District Judge was of the view that the apology would be subject to the directions of the Delhi High Court.

Upon approaching the High Court, the applicants reiterated their unconditional apology. Justice Gedela, taking a lenient view, deemed it benevolent to accept the apology, noting that it appeared genuine and without malice.

He said: "It would be benevolent to accept the unconditional apology tendered by the applicants. This Court is of the considered opinion also that the said apology is genuine and without any malice."

As a result, the court set aside the District Judge's order, which had imposed a personal cost of Rs 20,000 on the applicants.