Allowed

M.C.Sarojini Amma v. P.Gopalan

Kerala HC31 Aug 2016CRP/318/2016

Case brief

AI extract

What is this about?

High Court allowed revision petition, holding delay in seeking to set aside ex parte decree was excusable. Ordered restoration of suit for fresh hearing conditional on payment of costs.

What did the court decide?

Set aside impugned order dismissing application to set aside ex parte decree; restore suit to file on payment of Rs. 7,500 costs.

What the court decided

AI extract

M.C.Sarojini Amma Vs P.Gopalan — Property and Title | Kerala HC (2016)

¶111

occurred in filing the Special Leave Petition, the application for condonation of delay was dismissed. Similarly, in the case of Collector of Central Excise, Madras v. A.MD.Bilal and Co, 1999(108) Excise Law Times 331 (SC), the Supreme Court declined to condone the delay of 502 days in filing the appeal because there was no satisfactory or reasonable explanation rendered for condonation of delay. The provisions of O.22 R.9, Code of Civil Procedure has been the subject matter of judicial scrutiny for considerable time now. Sometimes the Courts have taken a view that delay should be condoned with a liberal attitude, while on certain occasions the Courts have taken a stricter view and wherever the explanation was not satisfactory, have dismissed the application for condonation of delay. Thus, it is evident that it is difficult to state any straight-jacket formula which can uniformly be applied to all cases without reference to the peculiar facts and circumstances of a given case. It must be kept in mind that whenever a law is enacted by the legislature, it is intended to be enforced in its proper perspective. It is an equally settled principle of law that the provisions of a statute, including every word, have to be given full effect, keeping the legislative intent in mind, in order to ensure that the projected object is achieved. In other words, no provisions can be treated to have been enacted purposelessly. Furthermore, it is also a well settled canon of interpretative jurisprudence that the Court should not give such an interpretation to provisions which would render the provision ineffective or odious. Once the legislature has enacted the provisions of O.22, with particular reference to R.9, and the provisions of the Limitation Act are applied to the entertainment of such an application, all these provisions have to be given their true and correct meaning and must be applied wherever called for. If we accept the contention of the Learned Counsel appearing for the applicant that the Court should take a very liberal approach and interpret these provisions (O.22 R.9 of the Code of Civil Procedure and S.5 of the Limitation Act) in such a manner and so liberally, irrespective of the period of delay, it would amount to practically rendering all these provisions redundant and inoperative. Such approach or interpretation would hardly be permissible in law. Liberal construction of the expression 'sufficient cause' is intended to advance substantial justice which itself presupposes no negligence or inaction on the part of the applicant, to whom want of bona fide is imputable. There can be instances where the Court should condone the delay; equally there would be cases where the Court must exercise its discretion against the applicant for want of any of these ingredients or where

M.C.Sarojini Amma v. P.Gopalan

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M.C.Sarojini Amma v. P.Gopalan

Case brief

What is this about?

What did the court decide?

What the court decided

Issues for consideration

Cases cited

Parties & counsel

Coram

Case details

Similar cases

K.Venugopal Vs P.T.Uma

Vadakke Puthalath Narayani Amma Vs Vadakkiniyil Krishnan

V.S. Sidharthan Vs the Land Tribunal

K.M.Zeinuddin Vs Hassainar

A compact analysis

Statutes considered

Avarachan Vs Annamma Varghese