“7. Notwithstanding which of the aforesaid Rules are applicable, the question of condonation of delay in refiling of an application has to be considered from a different angle and viewpoint as compared to consideration of condensation of delay in initial filing. The delay in refiling is not subject to the rigorous tests which are usually applied in excusing the delay in a petition filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act (See Indian Statistical Institute Vs. M/s. Associated Builders and others AIR 1978 S C 335. In the present case, the initial delay of 7 days in filing the application for leave to defend stood condoned and that has not been challenged by any of the parties. It is no doubt true that the counsel for the appellant had not been very diligent after filing of application for leave to defend on 19th August, 1995 as counsel did not check whether the application was lying in the Registry with any objection or not. Considering however, the nature of the objections, it was a matter of removal of the objections by the counsel and on the facts of the present case, it is difficult in this case to attribute any negligence to the party. On the facts of the case, the effect of negligence or 'casual approach', which would be appropriate term to be used here, of the counsel on his client, does not deserve to be so rigorous so as to deny condensation of delay in refiling the application. The casual approach of the counsel is evident as no timely efforts were made firstly to find out after filing application on 19th August, 1995 as to whether the Registry had raised any objection or not. Secondly, despite order of the Joint Registrar dated 9th January, 1996, the objection was removed only on 4th March, 1996 i.e. after the date which the Joint Registrar had fixed for the application being posted for hearing before the Court. When the application was refiled on 4th March, 1996, one would expect the person filing to be more careful thereby not giving an opportunity to the Registry to raise any other objection. But that was not so. The result was that the second objection was raised which, as noticed above, was removed on 21st March, 1996 but application was refiled only on 27th March, 1996. Apart from this casual approach, we do not find any mala fide intention on the part of the appellant to delay the proceedings. When there is negligence or causal approach in a matter like this in refiling of an application, though the court may not be powerless to reject an application seeking condonation and may decline to condone the delay but at the same time, passing of any other
