IMPORTANT POINT
In cases of condonation of delay sufficient cause is to be liberally construed.

Chander Shekhar Sharma, Member—This order will dispose of the application under Section 5 of Limitation Act filed for condonation of delay in filing the appeal.

2. The background under which this application was filed and the various reasons for condonation of delay in filing the present application are briefly summarized hereinafter.

3. In the present case consumer complaint No.18/2010 was decided by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum, Mandi camp at Sundernagar on 26.2.2011. As per averments made in the application it is stated that the certified copy in the present case was prepared on 1.3.2011 which was received by the local counsel on the same date and appeal was to be filed before 31.3.2011. Counsel for the applicant has sent the certified copy of the said Order to the Applicant to Chandigarh at their Sector 34A office. However, the office of the Applicant has shifted from Sector 34A to the new office in Sector 9C during that time, and the orders of this case which was received by the dispatch section got inside another unrelated legal file by mistake and the same went unnoticed by the legal section of the Applicant company as it was not received by the legal section of the company. The further averments were to the effect that it was only when the pending two cases of MACT filed by Sh. Roshan Lal v. Paras Ram and Sh. Denish Supehya v. Paras Ram were being handled, then it came to light that the consumer matter may have been decided. On contacting the local counsel who had been handling the present consumer matter over telephone on 28.4.2011, it was informed by him that he had sent the certified copy of the Order earlier and the same may be checked up from the files with the Applicant office. Thereafter, all the hundreds of legal matter files were checked thoroughly by the Applicant and ultimately the certified copy of the Order was traced and found inside a completely unrelated file in office of Applicant. Urgently, legal opinion was sought, which was sent vide covering letter dated 5.2.2011 by counsel. The matter was processed and sanction taken to file the Appeal. The Appeal was drafted and the same was filed on 18.5.2011.

4. Hence in this background appellant filed the present application for condonation of delay and had specifically averred in the application that delay in filing the appeal was not intentional, but due to the bona fide inadvertent mistake as the delay in filing the appeal was due to the shifting of the office of the applicant and mixing of file with other bundle of files. The reply to this application for condonation of delay was filed on behalf of the respondent wherein no specific reply to the averments made in the paras were made and only contention was that application is frivolous and it is all made up story and there are no reasonable grounds to condone the delay.

5. We have heard the counsel for the parties at length and have also gone through the record of the case minutely.

6. Mr. Ratish Sharma counsel for applicant argued that there are sufficient grounds for condoning the delay in the present case, since the file of the case was misplaced during the shifting of the office of the appellant and delay in filing the appeal is not intentional one but a bona fide one. Mr. Yashveer Singh counsel for the respondent argued that there are no sufficient grounds for condoning the delay in filling the appeal in the present case as day to day delay had not been explained and delay was intentional one and there are no sufficient grounds for condoning the delay.

7. After hearing the counsel for the parties and going through the record of the case we are of the considered view that there are sufficient grounds for condoning the delay in the present case the file of the case was misplaced during the shifting of the office of the appellant and the averments made in the application are duly supported by affidavit of appellant and the respondent had not given specific reply to the averments mad