The principle of delay and laches, were discussed in a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in Senior Divisional Manager, Life Insurance Corporation of India Ltd. and others v. Shree Lal Meena, (2019) 4 SCC 479
Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. and others v. Shyam Kishore Singh - (2020) 3 SCC 411
The issue of delay and laches was considered by the Supreme Court in Union of India and others vs. N. Murugesan and others, (2022) 2 SCC 25.
The principles governing delay, laches, and acquiescence are overlapping and interconnected on many occasions.
Delay is the genus to which laches and acquiescence are species. Similarly, laches might be called a genus to a species by name acquiescence.
The word “laches” is derived from the French language meaning “remissness and slackness”.
It thus involves unreasonable delay or negligence in pursuing a claim involving an equitable relief while causing prejudice to the other party.