ORDER NO. 3 DT. 3.12.10

HON'BLE JUSTICE MR. P.K.SAMANTA, PRESIDENT

 Appellant is present through Ms. K.Mukhopadhyay, Ld. Advocate.  Mr. Satyajit Talukder along with Mr. B.Mondal, Ld. Advocates appearing on behalf of the Respondent No. 1, file Vokalatnama.  Respondent No. 2 is present through Mr. Avik K Dutt, Ld. Advocate.  Heard them on the application for condonation of delay.  Order is passed as under :-

This is an application for condonation of delay.  The Appeal has been filed out of time by about 379 days.  Evidently the impugned order was passed on 26.6.09 in presence of the Ops/Appellants.  It has been stated in the above application for condonation of delay that after the said order dt. 26.6.09 was passed a certified copy was applied for on 7.7.09 and obtained on 21.7.09.  The same was submitted to the Insurance Company on 24.7.09 for the purpose of taking decision for filing an Appeal against the said order dt. 26.6.09.  Upon perusal of the file by the concerned authority and the local manager of the Insurance Company the said file was handed over to the Ld. Advocate for preferring an Appeal on 2.9.09.  The said Ld. Advocate could not prepare the Appeal within a reasonable period of time  as his mother was lying seriously ill.  Thereafter on or about 2.7.10 the Insurance Company while taking stock of the matter realized the fact of non-filing of the above Appeal.  Accordingly steps were taken for retrieving the said file for the purpose of filing of the said Appeal.  The file was retrieved on 7.6.10 and thereafter the Appeal was ultimately filed on 10.8.10. 

Upon careful reading of the above application it is crystal clear that the Appellants/Insurance Company washed off their hands after the file was handed over to the Ld. Advocate on 2.9.09 for filing of the above Appeal.  The Insurance Company did not bother to enquire whether the said Appeal was filed by the Ld. Advocate within a reasonable period thereafter.  It went into  slumber for about a period of nine months without keeping any track as to the fact of filing of the Appeal by the said Ld. Advocate.  These facts speak loud about the negligence and laches on the part of the Appellants in preferring the above Appeal by making such huge delay.  It is furthermore important to note that even after it was discovered on 2.6.10 that the Appeal had not been filed within the reasonable period of time from the date of handing over of the file to the Ld. Advocate, the Insurance Company further took more than two months’ time to file the above Appeal before the State Commission.  It also did not take any steps with promptness for the purpose of filing of the above Appeal after 2.6.10. 

In all these facts and circumstances, we are of the view that the Appellants/Insurance Company is guilty of lack of due diligence and on the contrary, this delay in filing the Appeal has occasioned because of pure negligence and laches on the part of the Appellants/Insurance Company.  The application for condonation of delay is accordingly dismissed.  The Appeal shall accordingly stand dismissed being barred by limitation.