Heard Mr. S.S. Sarma, learned Sr. Counsel for the petitioner and Mr. S.K. Sahu, learned counsel for the respondents.

2. This petition under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, R/W Section 173(1) proviso of MV Act has been filed praying for condonation of 167 days delay in preferring the appeal.

3. The reasons for delay has been stated in paragraph-2 of the petition, which is reproduced below:

“2. That the petitioner has states that papers had to be collected from advocate to Divisional Office and than to Regional Office, which took time and in view of huge amount involved, opinion of senior advocate was required to be obtained and all these took time and in doing so, the normal period of time to file an appeal expired and papers were ultimately sent to advocate on 08.01.2016 to file the appeal by engaging the senior advocate. But it was found that the certified copy of award was not available amongst the papers sent to him and just a photocopy of the same was available. The said fact was communicated to the regional office and thereafter the certified copy was applied before the Tribunal and was ultimately sent to the advocate on 06.05.2016 and he took some more time to