The court emphasized the need for a sufficient and satisfactory explanation for condonation of delay and highlighted the importance of a justice-oriented approach and diligence in filing appeals against awards under the Motor Vehicles Act.

ORDER :

1. Through the medium of instant application, applicant seeks condonation of 1538 days delay in filing the appeal against award dated 30.04.2014 passed by Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal Udhampur (herein, for short ‘tribunal’) in case titled “Bansi Lal vs. Ashok Kumar & Ors.”

2. The facts giving rise to the filing of the instant application emerging from the record would reveal that the Respondent No. 2 herein filed a claim petition under Motor Vehicles Act 1988 against the applicant herein for the injuries sustained by him on account of vehicular accident dated 30.10.2008. The applicant herein having been impleaded as Respondent in the said claim petition, being the owner of the vehicle came to be summoned by the tribunal upon entertaining the claim petition on 03.06.2010 and again afresh on 31.07.2010.

3. It is stated in the application that the applicant upon receipt of notice(s) from the tribunal in the claim petition, engaged a counsel for contesting the claim petition, who is stated to have promised the applicant herein to represent him before the tribunal and inform him about the progress of the case and that on account of such promise and assurance, the applicant remained satisfied and waited for the information from his engaged counsel in the matter, who however, did not provide any information to the applicant about the case.

4. It is stated that it was only in the month of July 2018, the applicant received a notice from the tribunal whereupon, he engaged one Ms. Shallu Khajuria, Advocate, who appeared before the tribunal on 10.08.2018 and upon receipt of the copy of the execution application instructed the applicant to file objections to the application and that being not satisfied with the advice of the said counsel, the applicant herein engaged a senior counsel and upon his advice, the applicant obtained the copies of the award and interim orders passed in the execution application, whereupon, the applicant came to know that the counsel engaged earlier in the matter had failed to appear before the tribunal, resulting into passing of an exparte award, whereby, the Insurance Company/Non Applicant 1 herein had been saddled with the liability with a liberty to recover the awarded amount from the owner of the vehicle/applicant herein and that the applicant intended to challenge the said exparte award in an appeal before this Court and that since, it was time barred, as such, has filed the instant application for condonation of delay.

5. The grounds urged in the application for seeking condonation of delay in the instant application is that, the applicant was not informed by his counsel about the progress of his case as promised by him and that it was only upon receipt of a notice from the execution court, that the applicant came to know about the passing of exparte award. It is also urged in the application that only after obtaining the copy of the award, the applicant came to know about the delay having occasioned in the matter, and as such, filed the instant application accompanied with the appeal against the impugned award. It is being also urged in the application that the delay in filing the appeal is required to be condoned as a substantial right of the applicant to pay compensation to the claimant is involved on the ground that the applicant allegedly violated the route permit of the offending vehicle.

6. Objections to the application have been filed by non applicant 1 whereas, other non applicants have chosen not to appear or else to file objections to the application. In the objections, it is being stated that the applicant has not approached this Court with clean hands and that in fact that the applicant did appear before the tribunal and had been represented by a counsel and also had been aware about the passing of the award and despite that, applicant did not make any serious efforts to file appeal, well within time and that the appeal is filed in the year 2018, when the award have had been passed in 2014