NEW INDIA ASSURANCE CO LTD Vs. SUPREME LUMBERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Appeal has been filed with considerable delay of 454 days. IA No.7715 of 2020 seeking condonation of delay has been filed by the Appellant. In the Application, learned Counsel for the Applicant submits that they could not file the Appeal within time. The Appellant claims deduction of the period which has been exempted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court from 15/3/2020 onwards due to COVID in Suo Moto Writ Petition (C) No.3 of 2020 vide order dtd. 23/3/2020. It is submitted that the impugned order is dtd. 16/7/2019 and the copy was received by the Appellant on 26/10/2019 and the Appeal was filed on 11/11/2020. It is submitted that the delay is very less if we apply the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court given In Re: Cognizance for Extension of Limitation MA No.665 of 2021 in SMW(C) 3 of 2020.

(2.) It is argued by learned Counsel for the Respondent that the Appellant is not entitled to the benefit granted by the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the abovementioned case because the period of limitation had already expired and that the directions of the Hon'ble Supreme Court are applicable only where the period of limitation was alive.

(3.) Heard. It is a settled proposition of law that condonation of delay is not a matter of right. The person who has come up with the request for condonation of delay needs to explain delay of each and every day and has to show that there was some reasonable ground for him not to come to the court within the period of limitation. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of "Ram Lal and Ors. vs. Rewa Coalfields Limited, AIR 1962 Supreme Court 361" has held as under: