ORDER :

1. Both the appeals have been tagged together in pursuance of order dated 25.11.2021 and as such, are being heard together.

I.A. No. 8049 of 2019 in L.P.A. No. 542 of 2019

I.A. No. 8356 of 2019 in L.P.A. No. 566 of 2019

2. Both the appeals are barred by limitation, as such, separate applications have been filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act to condone the delay of 269 days in filing L.P.A. No. 542 of 2019 and 278 days in filing L.P.A. No. 566 of 2019 taking similar grounds as such, both the applications are being heard together and are being dealt with by this common order.

3. It has been stated in the interlocutory applications that due to complete inadvertence and oversight as also due to Durga Puja, Deepawali and Chhath Festival it slipped out from the mind of appellants and its office staff to enquire from their Government Counsel with regard to present position of writ petitions.

It has been further stated that after passing of order dated 25.10.2018 (impugned), no communication was made to the office of the appellants by their counsel and as such, they were completely ignorant about the order dated 25.10.2018 passed by this Court in writ petitions.

The further ground has been taken that the office of the appellants enquired from the website of the High Court with regard to present position of instant writ petition wherein the status of the case was shown as “disposed of” but order dated 25.10.2018 was not uploaded in the website and as such, it was not obtained by the appellants or their office staffs.

It has further been stated that in the last week of June 2019 the officers were sitting in district level meeting in the office of Deputy Commissioner, Garhwa and during this period, it was revealed by one of the State Government Officer that in one case the High Court has passed order that if the Forest Department is aggrieved by encroachment made by civilians upon forest land, then they may move before competent civil court for declaration of their right, title and interest upon same land. On hearing this news, the appellants immediately woke up and noticed that in two of writ petition filed against the Divisional Office, the same point of law is involved and, as such, immediately directed his office staffs to enquire into the matter and to obtain certified copies of orders passed in writ petitions.

Accordingly, the officer of the appellants rushed to Ranchi and contacted his concerned Government lawyer and requested him to procure the copy of order dated 25.10.2018 passed in the writ petitions. Thereafter, photocopy of order dated 25.10.2018 was obtained and after going through the contents of the instant order, advice of Government counsel was obtained verbally wherein the opinion was furnished that the Forest Department is required to file Letters Patent Appeal against the order dated 25.10.2018 passed in writ petitions and thereafter on completion of formalities, i.e. drafting of memo of appeal etc. the instant appeals have been filed which caused delay of 269 days in filing L.P.A. No. 542 of 2019 and 278 days in filing L.P.A. No. 566 of 2019.

4. Mr. Mithilesh Singh, learned GA-IV, appearing for the State appellants, has submitted that the delay which has been caused in filing the appeals is not intentional and, as such, the same may be condoned so as to hear the appeals on merit, otherwise the appellants will be remediless.

5. Per contra, Mr. Shadab Bin Haque, learned counsel appearing for the respondents-writ petitioners, opposed the grounds raised in the interlocutory applications by referring the pleading made by him in the affidavits which have been filed in response to the instant interlocutory applications. However, learned counsel has not disputed the fact that the appeals, if will be adjudicated on merit, no prejudice will be caused to the respondents-writ petitioners.

6. This Court, after considering the aforesaid submission is of the view that instead of dismissing the appeals on the ground of limitati