Jodhpur, Nov. 1 -- The Rajasthan high court has given the state government a final opportunity of five weeks to frame a new litigation policy aimed at curbing delays in filing appeals against acquittal orders, warning that the chief secretary, principal law secretary and finance secretary will have to appear in person if the directions are not followed. A bench of justices Mahendar Kumar Goyal and Bhuwan Goyal, while hearing a batch of criminal appeals and leave-to-appeal matters , expressed concern over the state government's failure to come up with the proposed policy despite being given several opportunities. The bench noted that the batch involved a large number of appeals filed by the government with inordinate delay against judgments of acquittal. It said the applications filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act seeking condonation of delay were found to be perfunctory, following which the state had been directed to submit an additional affidavit explaining the delays. However, the court observed that accepting the explanation offered in the additional affidavit would tantamount to giving a licence to the State Government to prefer leave to appeals in almost all the cases with delay. Against this backdrop, the state had proposed bringing in a new litigation policy to establish an effective mechanism to prevent delayed filing of appeals. Additional Advocate General Rajesh Choudhary sought five more weeks on October 28 to ensure compliance with the September 8 order. The bench directed the state to complete the exercise within five weeks....