UNION OF INDIA Vs. MANGAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) --This is a land acquisition Regular First Appeal filed by the Union of India against the order of the District Judge. The Land Acquisition Collector had awarded Rs. 4.00O.00 per bigha. The District Judge raised it to Rs. 12.000.00 per bigha. the contention in the appeal is that the enhancement should not have been beyond Rs. 7,000.00 . The award was made by the Collector in this case on 13.11.1981. Another question raised in the appeal is whether the additional benefits under section 2-(l) (after the amendment) can be given in the award rendered pi ior to the amendment. On the second question large number of appeals were hied in the Supreme Court. They are already heard and the judgment is awaited.

(2.) There is a delay of eighty days in filing the appeal. The averments in the application for condonation of delay under Section 5 of the Limitation Act read with Section 151, Civil Procedure Code are ; (1) That the limitation for the above noted appeal expired on 8th July 1987, (2) that there is delay of eighty days in filing the appeal, (3) that the delay in filing the appeal has occasioned due to the fact that it took sometime for the concerned Department, that is. Land Acquisition Collector, Tis Hazari, Delhi, to furnish the relevant documents and arrange for the court-fees, and (4) that the delay in filing the appeal is bona fide and not intentional.

(3.) We are not satisfied with the creptic and routine explanation viz. that the Department took time to 'furnish the relevant documents' and 'to arrange for the court-fees'. We have decided to write a reasoned judgment in this matter because ths is not an isolated case as hundreds of such appeals are being filed in this court in which invariably there is a delay in filing the appeals. There is hardly any satisfactory explanation furnished, nor any particulars in regard to the dates and stages of consideration are mentioned in the applications under Section 5 of the Limitation Act.