This revision petition under Section 21 (b) of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (for short ‘the Act’) has been filed by Oriental Insurance Company Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “the petitioner”) with an application for condonation of delay of 75 days over and above the Statutory period of 90 days as prescribed in Regulation 14 of the Consumer Protection Regulations, 2005 (for short ‘the Regulations”). However, as per Regulation 14 (2) a consumer forum may condone the delay in filing the petition if valid and sufficient reason to its satisfaction is given.   

          The explanation furnished by the petitioner/Insurance Company in their application seeking condonation of the said delay is that on receipt of a certified copy of order of the State Commission dated 05.12.2012, the same was sent to the Divisional Manager of the petitioner on 14.01.2013 with a covering letter.  In the meantime, Counsel of the petitioner was requested to send the necessary documents, to which reply was received by the petitioner on 15.03.2013.  Thereafter the papers were forwarded to the Regional Office of the petitioner, which in turn forwarded the same to Head Office after seeking legal opinion to proceed with the matter and file a revision petition.  Ultimately, on 24.05.2013 the revision petition was got signed and filed on 27.05.2013.  It is pleaded that there was no deliberate delay on the part of the petitioner and whatever delay has been caused, it is due to the circumstances beyond their control.   

          We are not satisfied with the above explanation.  It is clear that not only the Counsel took two months to respond to petitioner’s request for supply of some documents, even the Regional Office took two months to decide whether the order of the State Commission was to be challenged or not. 

Recently in Anshul Aggarwal vs. New Okhla Industrial Development Authority – (2011) 14 SCC 578 the Hon’ble Supreme Court has observed that while deciding the application filed for condonation of delay, the Consumer Forum has to keep in mind that the special period of limitation has been prescribed under the Act for filing appeals and revisions in consumer matters and the object of expeditious adjudication of the consumer disputes will get defeated if the appeals and revisions which are highly belated are entertained.

As already noted above, we are not convinced that a sufficient cause has been made out by the petitioner for condonation of delay of 75 days.  Consequently, the revision petition is dismissed on that short ground.