3.From the records, it is seen that the first respondent herein had filed a suit in O.S.No.80 of 2004 for partition and separate possession of her 1/5th share in the suit schedule property, which consisted of six items of properties. The first defendant in the said suit namely Murugesan Servai and the other defendants are siblings. They are children of one Ramasamy. The preliminary decree was passed in the said suit on 26.09.2005 and the same was not challenged by the defendants. Thereafter, the first respondent herein had filed I.A.No.318 of 20016 for passing a final decree. Pending the final decree proceedings, the first defendant Murugesan Servai passed away on 03.08.2007. However, no steps have been taken by the first respondent/plaintiff to bring his legal heirs, on record. Thereafter, the petitioners came to know about the proceedings in the second week of September 2008. They had immediately contacted the counsel and they were informed that an ex parte final decree had been passed. Therefore, the petitioners had come forward with the petition to condone the delay in filing a petition to set aside the abatement caused due to the death of the deceased first defendant, to set aside the abatement and to bring on record the legal heirs.
