No. 4/29.10.2010.

HON’BLE JUSTICE SRI PRABIR KUMAR SAMANTA, PRESIDENT.

Appellant is present through Ld. Advocate Mr. P. Banerjee.  Mr. Apurba Chakraborty, the Ld. Advocate files Vokalatnama on behalf of Respondent No. 1 and Mr. Abhik K. Dutt, the Ld. Advocate files Vokalatnama on behalf of Respondent No. 2.  S/R is thus complete.  By consent of parties we take up the hearing of the delay condonation application.

This appeal has been filed out of time by about 283 days as stated in the application for condonation of delay.  It is evident from the records of this appeal that the impugned judgement was passed on 14.08.2009.  The certified copy of the same was received by the Appellant on 19.08.2009.  Thereafter the appeal has been filed on 02.07.2010.  In the above application the delay as above in filing the above appeal has been explained as under :

“That the Advocate who conducted the case in the District Forum sent the certified copy of the order dtd. 14.08.09 to the Divisional office at Howrah to prefer an appeal before the Hon’ble State Commission.

That the Divisional Office, Howrah after receiving the said order copy, completed their official proceeding and sent the said order copy to the Regional Office, Kolkata for appeal before the Hon’ble State Commission.

That the Regional Office, Kolkata, which is empowered to take decision to prefer an appeal before the Hon’ble State Commission, after receiving the recommendation from Divisional Office taken decision for appeal of the case before the Hon’ble State Commission.

That at the same time the dealing Officer of the Legal Cell of the Insurance Company transferred and after joining of another dealing Officer at the Legal Cell he took the file and as per procedure submitted/sent the same to the Regional Manager for order for filing the appeal of the case.

That after completion of official procedure the Regional Manager of the Company sent the same file to the Legal Cell to conduct an Advocate for appeal the case before the Hon’ble State Commission.

That after receiving of office order from the R.M. the Legal Cell, Kolkata Regional Office appointed an Advocate to prefer the appeal of the case before the Hon’ble State Commission.

That the Ld. Advocate, after receiving the record of the case took very short time to prepare the said Memorandum of Appeal before the Hon’ble State Commission and informed to draw the Bank Draft as statutory deposit”.

The above explanation does nowhere disclose as to when the certified copy of the impugned order was sent to the Divisional Office at Howrah and the same was received by it.  Similarly, it has not been stated when the Regional Office at Kolkata was informed about the aforesaid order passed by the District Forum and the date on which the said Regional Office took decision to file an appeal before the State Commission.  In particular no dates have been mentioned in the four corner of the above application as to when the respective Departments or Offices of the Appellant dealt with case for the purpose of filing the above appeal before the State Commission.  The explanation has been given in a very slipshod manner and more particularly the same is absolutely vague in the absence of any particular as to the number of days spent by the respective Offices.   We are, therefore, not inclined to condone the delay in filing the above appeal.  The application for condonation of delay is accordingly dismissed.  The appeal shall accordingly stand dismissed as being barred by limitation.  The stay order made by this Commission on 30.09.2010 shall accordingly stand vacated.