Case: Oriental Aroma Chemical Indus.Ltd Vs. Gujarat Indisl.Devt.Corp

3. The appellant was allotted a piece of land for setting up an industrial unit at Ankleshwar subject to the terms and conditions embodied in agreement of licence dated 2.4.1976 which, among other things, provided for consumption of specified quantity of water by the appellant. The agreement also provided for payment of 70% of the cost of agreed quantity of water irrespective of consumption. In 1982, respondent No.1 demanded non utilization charges amounting to Rs.4068/-, which were deposited by the appellant. After some time, respondent No.1 demanded Rs.2,69,895/- towards water charges. For next 10 years, the parties entered into long correspondence on the issue of levy of water charges, etc. Finally, respondent No.1 issued bill dated 13.1.1996 requiring the appellant to pay Rs.22,96,207/- towards water charges. The appellant challenged the same in Special Civil Suit No.32 of 2001. The summons issued by the trial Court were duly served upon the respondents but no written statement was filed on their behalf to controvert the averments contained in the plaint and none appeared on the dates of hearing despite the fact that the case was adjourned on more than one occasion. The suit was finally decreed on 30.10.2004 and it was declared that the appellant is not liable to pay Rs.22,96,207/- by way of minimum charges for water for the period between 1978 and 16.4.2001 and, thereafter, till the water was supplied by respondent No.1. After few months, the appellant filed another suit which was registered as Civil Suit No.222 of 2005 and prayed that respondent No.1 be directed to issue no objection certificate in its favour. The summons of the second suit were also served upon the respondents, but neither the written statement was filed nor any one appeared on their behalf. The second suit was also decreed on 12.12.2007 and respondent No.1 was directed to issue no objection certificate to the appellant. In compliance of the decree passed in the second suit, the concerned authority of the Corporation issued no dues certificate dated 9.7.2008.4. After four months and fifteen days of taking action in furtherance of the decree passed in the second suit, the respondents filed an appeal against judgment and decree dated 30.10.2004 passed in Special Civil Suit No.32 of 2001. They also filed an application under Order 41 Rule 3A of the Code of Civil Procedure read with Section 5 of the Limitation Act for condonation of delay by making the followingThat this appeal is preferred against the judgment and decree of the learned Civil Judge (SD), Gandhinagar passed on 30.10.2004. That the suit was filed for permanent injunction and declaration and on the ground that the advocate of the GIDC has appeared but no written statement was filed and, therefore, the learned Judge resorted to Order 8 Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code and granted the declaration as prayed for in the plaint. That after the decree being passed, the present plaintiff filed another suit being Civil Suit No.222 of 2005 and in which the decree was passed on 12.12.2007. That particular decree is to be challenged before this Honourable Court and, therefore, in 2008, after the second decree was passed, it was brought to the notice of the Legal Department as well as to the Executive Engineer at GIDC, Ankleshwar as to how this has happened and it seems that because of numerous transfers as well as it is also possible that the party might have arranged or joined hands with some employee of the Corporation and thereby after engaging advocate, no body has gone to the advocate for the purpose of giving instruction or filing the written statement and as a result thereof, decree is passed and only in the month of January/February, the law department came to know and therefore, an inquiry was made into the matter but the GIDC could not trace out as to at whose hands the mistake or mischief was done, however, when after inquiry everything was noticed and, therefore, the application for certified copy was made on 17.11.2008 and on 18.11.2008, the copy was ready and the same was sent to the advocate and thereafter the present appeal is preferred.2. That a long span from 30.10.2004 to 18.11.2008, practically four years time is passed and this has happened only because of some mistake or mischief on the part of the staff and, therefore, the appeal could not be preferred, otherwise it is a matter of substantial right of the GIDC where the water charges are leveled in spite of water being used or not and when the bills were already drawn, there was not intention on the part of the GIDC not to contest the suit. But it is difficult to trace out how this has happened and, therefore, when the inquiry was conducted in detail, the facts were brought to the notice and on that basis the cause has arisen to file this appeal and the delay of 1067 days cause in filing the appeal is required to be condoned in the interest ofThat the First Appeal preferred by the appellant has been preferred with Civil Application No.14201 of 2008 and the said application for condonation of delay under Order 41 Rule (3A) read with Section 5 of the Limitation Act. As a matter of fact, the petitioner company being a Government Corporation is bound to follow the rules and regulations as it is and cannot deviate itself from the provisions of law. As a matter of fact in filing the present First Appeal there is a delay of more than 4 years. Moreover, in the second suit, the decree and judgment is already passed and thereafter now the petitioner has no right to challenge the order of the Civil Suit No.32/2001. But for the reasons best known to the appellant the correct number of days has not been mentioned in the condonation of delay application. As a matter of fact, the petitioner being a Government Corporation has to follow the rules and regulations strictly and is required to give proper explanation as to why the Appeal has not been preferred within the time frame and if they were so, being aggrieved by the order passed by the Ld. Civil Judge (SD) Gandhinagar. If the condonation of delay is taken into consideration the said page is only a 4 pages wherein no proper explanation as to what the petitioner was doing for the past year has been given in the said and thereby also the said application is required to be dismissed in limine.5. With regard to para -1 of the Civil Application, I most humbly and respectfully submit that it is true that the decree passed by the Ld. Civil Judge (S.D) Gandhinagar on 13.10.2004. It is also true that in the said Suit, the advocate for the GIDC had appeared but had not filed written statement and therefore, the Ld. Judge has passed the order under the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure and granted declaration as prayed for in the plaint. It is also true that after decree was passed, the present respondent filed another suit being Civil Suit No.222/2005 and the said decree was passed on 12.12.2007. It is not true that in the year 2008 after the second decree was passed it was brought to the knowledge of the Legal Department that the earlier decree was required to be challenged. Lack of legal knowledge cannot be said to be ground to condone the delay. If the facts had not been brought well in time then for the said it cannot be said that the respondent company is required to be punished. As a matter of fact nothing has been mentioned on Affidavit as to who did not give proper instructions or as to who had possibly played the mischief and as to who had joined the hand with the respondent company. It is only the blame game which is being played and allegations are being leveled in order to save its own skin but there is no truth behind the facts mentioned therein and thereby there is no way as to how the present application can ever be allowed. Moreover the respondent is not knowing any persons of the G.I.D.C. (as on today or at any time).6. With regard to para-2 of the Civil Application, I most humbly and respectfully say and submit that it is true that more than 4 years time has been passed from the date of the decree but as to who has played the mischief or mistake or had it been intentionally filed within the time frame that is for the reasons best known to the appellant corporation and that is something on which the petitioner company would not like to comment at this juncture. No proper justification or explanation has been brought on record as to what was happening for the past 4 years, has also not given anything in detail and neither true and correct facts have been mentioned nor the calculation in respect of the days have been made properly and thereby also on all the said counts, the present application is required to be dismissed with exemplary cost.The Division Bench of the High Court referred to the judgments of this Court in State of Bihar and others v. Kamleshwar Prasad Singh and another, 2000 AIR SC 2388, N. Balakrishnan v. M. Krishnamurthy, JT 1998 (6) SC 242 , State of Haryana v. Chandra Mani and others AIR 1996 SC 1623 , Spl. Tehsildars, Land Acquisition, Kerala v. K.V. Ayisumma AIR 1996 SC 2750 , Punjab Small Industries and Export Corporation Ltd. and others v. Union of India and others 1995 Suppl. (4) SCC 681,  P.K. Ramachandran v. State of Kerala and another (1997) 7 SCC 566 and Collector, Land Acquisition, Anantnag v. Mst. Katiji AIR 1987 SC 1353 and condoned the delay by making a cryptic observation that the cause shown by the respondents is sufficient. The relevant portion of the High Courts order is reproducedthe principles laid down by the Supreme Court to the facts of the present case, we are satisfied that sufficient cause is made out by the applicant for condonation of delay. Over and above, in view of the fact that reasons mentioned in this application have not been controverted by the other side and also in view of the principles governing the discretionary exercise of power under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963, we are of the view that sufficient cause has been stated for not filing the appeal in time and hence, delay caused in filing appeal is to be condoned and the application is required to be

Court's reasoning:
13. From what we have noted above, it is clear that the Law Department of respondent No.1 was very much aware of the proceedings of the first as well as the second suit. In the first case, Ms. Rekhaben M. Patel was appointed as an advocate and in the second case Shri B.R. Sharma was instructed to appear on behalf of the respondents, but none of the officers is shown to have personally contacted either of the advocates for the purpose of filing written statement and preparation of the case and none bothered to appear before the trial Court on any of the dates of hearing. It is a matter of surprise that even though an officer of the rank of General Manager (Law) had issued instructions to Ms. Rekhaben M. Patel to appear and file vakalat as early as in May 2001 and Manager (Law) had given vakalat to Shri B.R. Sharma, Advocate in the month of May 2005, in the application filed for condonation of delay, the respondents boldly stated that the Law Department came to know about the ex parte decree only in the month of January/February 2008. The respondents went to the extent of suggesting that the parties may have arranged or joined hands with some employee of the corporation and that may be the reason why after engaging advocates, nobody contacted them for the purpose of giving instructions for filing written statement and giving appropriate instructions which resulted in passing of the ex parte decrees. In our view, the above statement contained in para 1 of the application is not only incorrect but is ex facie false and the High Court committed grave error by condoning more than four years delay in filing of appeal ignoring the judicially accepted parameters for exercise of discretion under Section 5 of the Limitation Act.A reading of the impugned order makes it clear that the High Court did make a bald reference to the application for condonation of delay filed by the respondents but allowed the same without adverting to the averments contained therein and the reply filed on behalf of the appellant. Not only this, the High Court erroneously assumed that the delay was of 1067 days, though, as a matter of fact, the appeal was filed after more than four years. Another erroneous assumption made by the High Court was that the appellant had not filed reply to controvert the averments contained in the application for condonation of delay. It may have been possible for this Court to ignore the first error in the impugned order because by deleting the figures and words "4 years and 28" in paragraphs 2 and 3 of the application and substituting the same with the figure 1067, the respondents misled the High Court in believing that the delay was of 1067 days only but it is not possible to fathom any reason why the Division Bench of the High Court omitted to consider the detailed reply which had been filed on behalf of the appellant to contest the prayer for condonation of delay. Notwithstanding this, we may have set aside the impugned order and remitted the case to the High Court for fresh disposal of the application filed by the respondents under Section 5 of the Limitation Act but, do not consider it proper to adopt that course, because as will be seen hereinafter, the respondents did not approach the High Court with clean hands.During the course of hearing, learned counsel for the respondents fairly conceded that in the second suit filed by the appellant there was a specific mention of decree dated 30.10.2004 passed in Special Civil Suit No. 32/2001. He also conceded that even though the first suit remained pending before the trial Court for three years and five months and the second suit remained pending for more than two years, none of the officers of the Law Department or the Engineering Department of respondent No.1 appeared before the Court.