1. The plaintiff in O.S.No. 15364 of 1996 on the file of the 7th Assistant Judge, City Civil Court at Chennai is the petitioner. He is aggrieved against the order made in I.A.No. 3951 of 2009 dated 9.9.2009 in allowing the application filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act seeking to condone the delay of 1021 days in filing an application to set aside the exparte decree dated 17.4.2006.

2. The short facts that are necessary for considering this revision are as follows: The plaintiff/petitioner originally filed C.S.No. 347 of 1983 on the file of this Court against one Mrs.Rama Patnaik alias V.R.Patnaik seeking for the relief of specific performance of an agreement of sale dated 7.7.1980 and for other reliefs. During the pendency of the suit, the sole defendant died and her legal heirs were brought on record as defendants 2 to 6. The said suit was subsequently transferred and taken on file as O.S.No. 15364 of 1996 on the file of the 7th Assistant Judge, City Civil Court, Chennai in pursuant to the enhancement of pecuniary jurisdiction. The above suit came to be dismissed for default on 16.10.1997. An application in I.A.No. 20187 of 1997 was filed by the plaintiff to r