This Civil Miscellaneous Petition is, in a sense, a simple proceeding seeking condonation of the delay in filing an appeal by the State against an award by the Sub Court of enhanced compensation in land acquisition proceeding. But questions of some importance have been raised by counsel for the respondent who contends that no special treatment should be accorded to the State as a litigant and, if treated on a par with a private party, the merits of the case cannot justify the court absolving the appellant from the sin of delay.

2. The judgment and decree in L.A.R. No.95 of 1965 on the file of the Subordinate Judge's Court, Mavelikara, were passed on 7-4-1967. The State was aggrieved by this decree and applied for copies for filing an appeal. The Court to which the appeal lay was the High Court as has now been decided by a Full Bench of this Court in a case reported in ILR (1969) 1 Ker 227 : (AIR 1970 Ker 30) (FB) but on a misapprehension about the correct forum, the appeal was actually filed in the District Court at Mavelikara as A.S. No.123 of 1967 on 16-8-1967. Later, that court returned the appeal for re-presentation to the High Court on 27-6-1969 and in the order of retu