DILIP SINGHANIA Vs. ANIL KUMAR SINGHANIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Sec. 5 and 14 of the Limitation Act, 1963, praying for condonation of delay of a period of 60 days in filing the connected Revision Application against the judgment and order dtd. 4/11/2016, passed in T.S. No. 39(H) of 2013(Old No. T.S. 22(H) of 2005) by the Court of the Assistant District Judge, Shillong, dismissing an application under Sec. 10 CPC. The noting by the Registry, however, reflects that the delay as computed amounts to 1486 days after deduction of the regular appeal period of 90 days.

(2.) The explanation as put forward is that, the petitioner had earlier filed a Civil Revision being CRP No. 26 of 2017, under Article 227 of the Constitution of India against the same order, on the bona fide belief that an order rejecting the application under Sec. 10 CPC was not revisable under Sec. 115, which however, came to be dismissed by this Court by judgment dtd. 11/11/2019, on the ground of maintainability. Against the said order of dismissal, the petitioner then preferred an SLP being SLP No. 378 of 2019, before the Supreme Court of India, which was also dismissed vide order dtd. 17/1/2020, leaving the petitioner to pursue other remedies open in law, to challenge the order passed on the application under Sec. 10 of the CPC.

(3.) It is the further case of the petitioner that, copy of the order passed in the SLP was received on 8/2/2020, from the counsel and as the petitioner was unwell, he could not pursue the matter and the period of limitation expired on 28/2/2020. Other reasons for the delay have been attributed to agitation by local people in Assam, outbreak of the Corona Virus and lockdown from 24/3/2020 onwards and the unavailability of the counsel for the petitioner, who allegedly was out of station during the entire lockdown period and returned to Shillong only on November, 2020. The disruption in the normal functioning of the Courts till November, 2020, and closure of the High Court from 17/12/2020 upto 27/1/2021, for winter vacations are the other reasons cited by the petitioner. Necessary instructions to the counsel therefore, according to the petitioner could be given only on 11/2/2021 to file the Civil Revision which ultimately came to be filed on 10/3/2021.