IMPORTANT POINT
Delay of one year and eight months in filing appeal held not to be condoned.

ORDER (ORAL)

V.K. Jain, Presiding Member.—These revision petitions arise out of different orders passed by the State Commission dismissing the appeals preferred by the petitioner company against the orders of the District Forum, on the ground of limitation as well as on merits. Two consumer complaints were instituted against the petitioner company before the concerned District Forum. The complaints were allowed by the District Forum by way of two separate orders both dated 19.3.2018. Two different appeals before the State Commission against the orders of the District Forum were instituted. One appeal was instituted on 31.1.2020 whereas the other appeal was preferred on 10.2.2020. The appeals having been dismissed, the petitioner co. is before this Commission.

2. The applications which the petitioner company had filed before the State Commission seeking condonation of delay in filing the appeals are stated to be identical and to the extent they are relevant, the applications read as under:-

“2. That the order dated 19.03.2018 was never communicated to the appellant and the appellants received Bailable warrants in execution application filed by the respondent (EA 10.94 of 2019) in the month of November, 2019. That the appellant on receipt of Bailable warrants approached the counsel who represented the appellants in the complaint before the Ld. Forum and on enquiry, it was submitted that the Order was handed over to Sh.Rajinder Singh Kalsi, Zonal Legal Manager at Chandigarh. That the appellant thereafter tried to trace the Order in the office but despite best efforts the copy of the order could not be traced. Also the official (Rajinder Singh Kalsi) never communicated the Orders to the appellants and resigned and left the services of the appellant in December 2018. Further, the appellants sought the entire record from the counsel but it was submitted that the entire record was also handed over by the counsel to Sh.Rajinder Singh Kalsi, The said Zonal Legal Manager thereafter sent her recommendation to the Head Office of the appellants at Pune for filing appeal and the competent authority at Head Office Pune decided to prefer an appeal before this Hon’ble Commission. Thereafter, the certified copy of the Order, complaint and reply were sought for filing appeal and was applied by the counsel. The certified copy was received on 10.01.2020. Thereafter the same was sent to the appellant office at Delhi for taking decision regarding appeal. On decision taken by the Appellant to prefer Appeal, the counsel at Panchkula was engaged and the entire record pertaining to the captioned complaint was sent to the counsel. Further, request for preparation of Demand Draft, towards deposit of statutory amount which is precondition to preferring Appeal, was made to the concerned department and the same was prepared on ...12.2019 and the Appeal is being filed today without any further delay. The delay in filing the appeal is due to above-said reason and procedural reasons and not intentional on the part of the appellant. In this process a delay of 645 days has occurred in filing the appeal.

3. That from the day when the Order was passed, there is delay of 645 days in the filing the Appeal. The delay is neither intentional nor deliberate on the part of the Appellant but due to above-mentioned reasons.”

3. It would thus be seen that the condonation of delay was sought on the ground that copy of the impugned order as well as the entire record was handed over to one Rajinder Singh Kalsi the then Zonal Legal Manager of the petitioner company based at Chandigarh but no action was taken by Mr. Rajinder Singh Kalsi to challenge the order passed by the District Forum. This is also the case of the petitioner that Mr. Kalsi left the job in December 2018 and the company came to know of the order of the District Forum only when bailable warrants in the execution applications were issued in November, 2019. Thereafter, the petitioner company contacted the Advoc