M C D Vs. HAMDARD WAKF LABORATORIES INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963, whereby the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (for short "the MCD") prays for condonation of delay of 213 days in filing the appeal against the order passed by a learned Single Judge of this Court on 30th January, 2003. By the impugned order, the learned Judge has directed the MCD to grant vacancy remission to the respondent herein in respect of a plot of land, bearing municipal No. 317-18, Block B, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi, for the period it had remained vacant and unproductive of rent for sixty or more consecutive days, as stipulated in Section 164(2) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957. The plea of the MCD that an initial letting of the property is a pre-requisite for claim of vacancy remission has not found favour with the learned Judge. We may note at this juncture itself that for coming to the aforementioned conclusion, the learned Judge has relied on an earlier decision of this Court in Municipal Corporation of Delhi v. Lawrence Cold Storage P. Ltd., 100 (2002) DLT 467, which in turn was based on MCD's own instructions (No. 9) dated 9th July, 1980. In the said instructions it was clarified that claim for vacancy remission in respect of a building which had remained vacant even in the first instance, after completion, should be allowed under Section 164 of the said Act. It is not the appellant's case that the decision in Lawrence Cold Storage (supra) is under challenge.

(2.) For the sake of ready reference, the reasons for delay in filing the appeal, as narrated in the application, are reproduced hereunder:

(3.) Having heard Ms. Amita Gupta, learned Counsel for the MCD, we are of the view that the applicant has failed to make out a case for condonation of delay in filing the appeal.