STATE OF KERALA Vs. BALACHANDRAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the State stands with an application seeking condonation of delay of 2555 days in filing the appeal; that is to say, a delay of seven years.

(2.) The plaintiff sued for damages suffered to body and property as a result of certain violent incidents on a day which is alleged to be one when there were illegal and unholy exercises, sweetly christened as "bundh". The first defendant State is the appellant. Under the impugned decree, the trial court mulcted it with half of the responsibility to compensate and the remaining half was fastened on the organisation which had called for that illegal activity.

(3.) For one thing, the affidavit filed in support of the application seeking condonation of delay does not contain even a syllable worth acceptance as cause, much less sufficient cause, to condone the inordinate delay of seven years in instituting this appeal. All that the said affidavit contains is the ceremonial rendition of the dates on which the files moved up and down the track of the administration. We are not persuaded by such ritualistic expressions to be satisfied that there is sufficient cause to condone the delay.