1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY ORDINARY ORIGINAL JURISDICTION NOTICE OF MOTION NO. 57 OF 2008 IN SUIT NO. 194 OF 1987 Oriental Vinyls Limited. .... Plaintiff. V/s. Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation .... Defendant. ....... Mr. Karl Shroff with Ms. Anjil Amin i/b. B. Amin & Co. for the Plaintiff. Mr. V.M. Bodke with Ms. Madhu Hiraskar i/b. Chitnis Vaithy & Co. for the Defendant. ........ CORAM : DR. D.Y. CHANDRACHUD, J. 6TH FEBRUARY 2008. P.C. :- The Notice of Motion has been taken out by the Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation, which is impleaded as the Defendant to the Suit for condoning the delay in filing the written statement and for taking the written statement on the record. The suit is 2 for the recovery of an amount of Rs.3,81,584/-. In the affidavit in support of the Notice of Motion, it has been stated that the papers of the suit were untraceable, as a result of which, instructions could not be furnished to file a written statement. In my view, though there is a significant delay on the part of the Defendants, interests of justice would require that the Defendants be allowed an opportunity to contest the suit which has now come up for trial, by filing their written statement. An order of costs would be warranted. The Notice of Motion is made absolute in terms of prayer clauses (a) and (b), subject to the payment of costs quantified at Rs.7,500/- to the Plaintiffs which shall be a condition precedent. The payment of costs shall be effected within a period of two weeks from today. Upon the payment of costs, the Defendants would be at liberty to file the written statement within a period of four weeks. The suit shall be placed on board for directions on 5th March 2008. 3 ------