Judgment:
IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH.
Rs.No.2228 of 2012 (O&M) Date of decision:
2. 9.2013 Dalip Singh Bhandari -----Appellant(s) versus Harbhajan Lal & another -----Respondent(s) CORAM:- HON'BLE Mr.JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG 1
Whether reporters of local newspapers may be allowed to see judgment?.”
2. To be referred to reporters or not?.”
3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest?.
Present: Mr.Vivek Slathia, Advocate for the appellant.
--- RAKESH KUMAR GARG, J.
This is defendant’s second appeal, challenging the judgments and decrees of the Courts below whereby suit of the plaintiff-respondents for specific performance of the agreement to sell in question has been decreed.
There is a delay of 2114 days in filing this appeal.
A prayer has been made to condone the aforesaid delay by moving CM No.6220-C of 2012.
Paragraphs 3 and 4 of the aforesaid application read thus:- Kumar Ashwani 2013.09.04 10:52 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court Chandigarh Rs.No.2228 o”
2. “3.
That the counsel appearing before the Learned FiRs.Appellate Court did not intimate the status of the appeal to the appellant.
The appellant on numerous occasions tried to contact his counsel to ascertain the status of the appeal.
However, the counsel did not intimate the status of the appeal.
The Appellant hence was never aware that his appeal has been dismissed by the Learned FiRs.Appellate Court.”
4. That the appellant who is the sole bread earner of the family, due to economic constraints did not have enough funds to engage a counsel for the purpose of filing of the instant appeal.
Moreover, the appellant is under a severe monetary crunch and did not have funds to file the appeal.”
The grounds taken by the appellant to explain the aforesaid delay in filing this appeal are that his counsel did not intimate him the status of the appeal, despite repeated requests and that he was not having sufficient funds to engage a counsel for the purpose of filing this appeal.
It is a matter of record that the appellant has not shown that it was the obligation of the counsel to inform him the status of the appeal.
In fact, the application itself shows that the appellant was quite negligent in pursing his appeal.
His case for condonation of delay is based upon the fact that he repeatedly asked his counsel to give him the status of the appeal, yet he was Kumar Ashwani 2013.09.04 10:52 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court Chandigarh Rs.No.2228 o”
3. not provided any information.
However, in these circumstances, any ordinary prudent litigant could have reached the office of his counsel or could have visited the Civil Courts itself to make enquiry with regard to his case.
not only this, the appellant has further submitted that he was in financial constraints to file the instant appeal, but the facts suggests that he was an employee of the Punjab and Sind Bank and was serving as a Cashier and thus, the stand taken by him about his poor financial condition has been falsified.
In view thereof, this Court is of the view that the appellant has failed to justify the huge delay of 2114 days in filing this appeal.
Since there are no sufficient reasons to condone such a huge delay, prayer for condoning the same is rejected.
Consequently, the appeal is also dismissed as time barred.
September 02, 2013 [RAKESH KUMAR GARG].ak JUDGE Kumar Ashwani 2013.09.04 10:52 I attest to the accuracy and integrity of this document High Court Chandigarh