RFA No 1883 of 2011 (O&M) 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH RFA No 1883 of 2011 (O&M) Date of Decision : 27.7.2011 Jaipal and others ....Appellants Versus State of Haryana etc. ....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAKESH KUMAR GARG 1. Whether reporters of local news papers 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. S.P.Khatri, Advocate for the applicants/appellants. Mr. Rajesh Bhardwaj, Addl.A.G.Haryana. * * * RAKESH KUMAR GARG, J C.M.No.4509-CI of 2011 This appeal has been filed after a delay of 9 years 140 days after the expiry of limitation period. Along with this appeal an application has been filed for condoning the said delay. The averments in this application reads as follows:- “The Appellants/petitioners had engaged Sh. Ashish Kapoor Advocate of Punjab & Haryana High Court, for filing first appeal against the impugned order dated 10.8.2001 for enhancement of the compensation and amount of total fee of the Advocate has been paid. That the learned Advocate Sh. Ashish Kapoor had filed the regular first appeal on 21.11.2001 vide Dairy No. 29965 in the Hon'ble High Court, within limitation under the title Sarti etc. State of Haryana. Now Sarti has died and present appeal is being filed by the LRs of Sarti as RFA No 1883 of 2011 (O&M) 2 well as by claimants. The Leearned counsel had also filed many other connected appeals of the co-villagers namely Ram Kirshan, Jai Bhagwan, Pushpa etc. A photocopy of the receipt was given to the appellants by the Advocate. A true typed copy and photocopy is attached as Annexure a-1, The appellant Jaipal had submitted the relevant papers regarding the implementation of the LRs of deceased Sarti and Kartara well within time to the counsel. That the Hon'ble Justice Permod Kohi of Punjab and Haryana High Court has disposed of the entire bunch on 30.7.2008 in main RFA No. 805 of 2001 Ram Mehar vs, State of Haryana and enhanced the compensation upto Rs.200/- per Sq. Yard along with other statutory benefits under Land Acquisition Act. That after some time the learned Advocate Sh. Ashish Kapoor send the certified copy of the order of the case of the petitioners- appellants was not given. Then the petitioner inquired why the copy of the order of their case would not be listed in the above mentioned bunch and as and when the petitioner case will be disposed of then only the certified copy of the orders can be given. It is pertinent to mention here that the petitioners- appellants contacted the lawyer many times on telephone to know about the fate of their appeal but on each and every time the petitioners- appellants were told that your case has not listed for hearing. After waiting for considerable long period, the petitioners-appellants contacated the learned counsel Ashish Kapoor in the first week of February, 2011 and asked him to give the regular first appeal number of their case. The petitioner was told that he will give the RFA number on telephone but till the last date January, 2011 the counsel has not supplied the RFA number of their case. After the doubtful statement of the counsel, the petitioner inquired from the other sourche whether any RFA in the name of the petitioners is pending or not. Finally, it was found that no RFA is pending in the name of the petitioner/appellants in the High Court. It appears that the Registry has raised objection on the case file but the case was not re-filed by counsel. When the Regular First Appeal had not been filed, so the implementation of the LRs of deceased Sarti and Kartara was also not possible. So, in the first week of March, 2011 the petitioners/appellants asked the Advocate Sh. Ashish Kapoor why you have not re-filed their cases. Then the learned counsel asked the petitioner to supply the certified copy of the impugned orders along with power of attorney then your case will be filed afresh. Petitioners- appellants were harassed by the act of the Ld. Counsel. So petitioners- RFA No 1883 of 2011 (O&M) 3 appellants have already filed a complaint with the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana against the advocate for seeking them in dark on 12.3.2011. That the petitioners-appellants applied to get the certified copies of the impugned orders dated 10.08.2001 and got the same on 5.3.2011. That the delay of 9 years 140 days in filing the case, happened due to the above mentioned reason. This delay was beyond the control of the petitioners/appellants and neither it was intentional nor willful. That the petitioners-appellants were under the impression that the case has been filed properly within limitation but due to the mistake committed by the Lawyers, the delay of 9 years 140 days occurred. The present case is squarely covered by RFA No.2772/2009 titled as Azad Singh vs. State of Harynana decided by Hon'ble Mr.J.L.N.Mittal which is attached as Annexure A-2." From the perusal of the averments, it is made out that appellants had allegedly engaged Mr. Ashish Kapoor, Advocate for filing these appeals and he also filed appeals on their behalf within limitation period as alleged and the appellants came to know only after the decision of other appeals on 30th July, 2008 in RFA No.805 of 2001 titled Ram Mehar Vs. State of Haryana alongwith other bunch of appeals and compensation was enhanced but their appeals were not filed by Mr. Ashish Kapoor, Advocate and thereafter they have filed these appeals afresh . From sequence of events it is manifestly clear that the appellants were totally negligent in pursuing their remedy. Admittedly, after engaging Mr. Ashish Kapoor as their counsel they never bother to check the status regarding filing of their appeals before this Court. It is not believable that appellants whose land had been acquired will not inquire about their case for enhancement of compensation. Though it has been said in the application for RFA No 1883 of 2011 (O&M) 4 condonation of delay that they repeatedly asked their lawyer on telephone but on each and every time they were told that their case was not listed. Inspite of the aforesaid averment, the petitioners never thought of coming to their lawyer personally and check the status of the case. It is crystal clear from the facts that the appellants were grossly negligent in pursuing their case. Learned counsel on behalf of the appellants has tried to submit before this Court that similar plea has been accepted by this Court in RFA No. 2772 of 2009 titled as Azad Singh and others Vs. State of Haryana and others and a delay of 2727 days has been condoned. It is well settled that each case of condonation of delay has its own facts and each case is to be seen on its own facts to find out whether there are sufficient reasons for condoning the delay or not. Though an attempt has also been made to submit that for the negligence of the Counsel, the litigant should not suffer. It was also submitted before this Court that a complaint has been made to the Bar Council against the lawyer. However, it is coming out from the record that inspite of fact that from the very beginning Mr. Ashish Kapoor, was not giving satisfactory reply to them and was putting off the matter on one pretext or the other, still the appellants never thought of making any complaint regarding his conduct. Moreover, inspite of the fact that they came to know about non-filing of their appeal on the decision of the other cases, yet they have chosen to file the complaint against Mr.Ashish Kapoor,Advocate only on 12.03.2011 i.e. only one week before the filing of this appeal. It seems that even the filing of the aforesaid complaint is not bona fide RFA No 1883 of 2011 (O&M) 5 and an attempt has been made to create evidence in favour of the appellants for condoning the delay. Thus, in these circumstances, this Court is not inclined to accept the explanation given by the appellants for condoning such a huge delay of 9 years 140 days. RFA No.1883 of 2011 Since the application for condonation of delay has been rejected. Consequently, the main appeal also ordered to be rejected being time barred. No miscellaneous application survives. 27.7.2011 (Rakesh Kumar Garg) savita Judge