Court No. - 29
Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 461 of 2021
Appellant :- Munna Lal Yadav
Respondent :- The Assistant General Manager Bank Of India And 2 Others
Counsel for Appellant :- Arvind Tripathi,Devesh Mishra
Counsel for Respondent :- R.V. Pandey
Hon'ble Munishwar Nath Bhandari,Acting Chief Justice Hon'ble Subhash Chandra Sharma,J.
Civil Misc. (Condonation) Application No. 1 of 2021 Mr. Devesh Mishra, learned counsel appears on behalf of the appellant and Mr. R.V. Pandey, learned counsel appears on behalf of respondent nos. 1 and 2.
Heard on the application for condonation of delay.
There is a delay of 916 days' in filing the appeal. An application for condonation of delay is supported by an affidavit. It is stated that the judgment in question was passed by the learned Single Judge on 5th December, 2018. The appellant after knowing about the judgment made discussion with the counsel in the month of March, 2019. After the discussion and legal advise, appellant came back to his native place and then visited Allahabad in July, 2019 again to seek legal advice. He was advised to file a special appeal and the same was prepared in August, 2019 but, it was misplaced in the chamber of the counsel due to renovation of the office. In November, 2019, the clerk of the learned counsel informed to swear the affidavit but appellant did not visit the office and in the meanwhile, due to COVID-19, appellant could not swear the affidavit.
We find no explanation of delay after November, 2019. A reference of COVID-19 has been taken but lock-down pursuant to it was imposed in March, 2020. It is also a fact that lock-
down was thereafter lifted. The appeal was not preferred thereupon also rather it was filed in 2021 after a delay of 916 days.
In absence of the explanation of delay, the application cannot be allowed even if we take a liberal approach to accept the explanation of delay till November, 2019 but, thereupon no explanation worth acceptance exist to condone the delay which is of more than one and a half years. Accordingly, application fails and is dismissed. In the result, appeal is also dismissed.
Order Date :- 29.7.2021 VMA
(Subhash Chandra Sharma, J.) (Munishwar Nath Bhandari, A.C.J.)