WP(C) 5196/2010 BEFORE THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE UJJAL BHUYAN Heard Mrs. A. Bujarbaruah, learned counsel for the petitioners and Mrs. V. L. Si ngh, learned State counsel for both the respondents. The short issue involved in the present case is the decision of the lear ned Assam Administrative Tribunal rejecting the condonation petition filed by th e present petitioners and consequently dismissing the appeals as barred by limit ation. The petitioners had filed an appeal before the said tribunal which was re gistered as Appeal No. 12 of 2010 challenging the gradation list dated 20-10-200 9 of the Assistant Engineers of the Public Health Engineering Department and for other connected reliefs. As there was delay of 85 days in filing the said appea l, an application under Section 5 of the Assam Administrative Tribunals Act, 197 7 was filed for condoning the said delay in presenting the appeal. The learned T ribunal by the order dated 4-5-2010 declined to condone the delay. Consequently, the appeal of the petitioners was held to be time barred and was dismissed. The order of the learned tribunal is as under : Learned Junior Advocate for the appellant and learned Junior Govt. Advocate are present. Learned Advocate of the appellant has filed condonation petition as wa s ordered by the Tribunal dtd. 20-3-2010. We have heard both the parties on meri t on the acceptance of the condonation petition as prayed for. The grounds put f orwarded for condonation is not convincing & not at all satisfactory. The condon ation petition is rejected. The appeal is therefore barred by limitation under S ection 5 of the Assam Administrative Tribunal Act, 1977. The appeal stands dismi ssed. I have perused the contents of the appeal preferred before the learned t ribunal as well as the application for condonation of delay. In my view, the pet itioners had made out a case for condoning the delay in paragraph-3 of the condo nation petition. In my considered opinion, the petitioners were prevented by suf ficient cause from filing the appeal within time. Moreover, it appears that ther e is prima facie merit in the appeal filed and therefore, the learned tribunal c ommitted an error in not condoning the delay. In view of the aforesaid, the order dated 4-5-2010 passed by the leaned tribunal is hereby set aside. The delay in preferring the related appeal i.e. Ap peal No. 12 of 2010 before the tribunal stands condoned. The tribunal will now h ear the Appeal No. 12 of 2010 on merit. This disposes of the writ petition.