The court ruled that delays exceeding the prescribed limit in legal appeals must have satisfactory justification; negligence in filing does not warrant condonation.

JUDGMENT :

SHAMIM AHMED, J.

These intra court appeals have been directed against the judgment and order passed by the Writ Court dated 26.10.2021 made in W.P.Nos.13803 and 13397 of 2018.

2. The present Civil Miscellaneous Petitions under section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 are filed by the petitioners/Appellants to condone the delay of 972 days in filing the above Writ Appeals against the judgment and Order dated 26.10.2021 passed by the learned Single Judge in W.P.Nos.13803 and 13397 of 2018.

3. Since both the Writ Appeals arisen out of common Judgment and Order passed by the learned Single Judge, both the appeals and Civil Miscellaneous Petitions are disposed of by a common order.

4. Before the Writ Court, the respondents herein have filed writ petitions against the petitioners herein seeking for issuance of Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus to quash the order passed by the 2^nd respondent dated 16.02.2018 made in Na.Ka.13835/2017/F1 rejecting their claim for granting compensation in respect of their lands acquired by the Government and consequentially direct the respondents therein to consider their representation dated 10.07.2017 and to immediately settle compensation for thier property acquired by the Government/appellants herein.

5. The facts of the case leading to filing of the present Writ Appeals as per the appellants are as follows:

(a) The writ petitioner in W.P.No.13803 of 2018 viz., Rajasekaran is the absolute owner of the property comprised in S.No.143/2, T.S.No.2, New T.S.No.2/2 measuring an extent of 2300.0 square meter, situated in Ward C, Block No.5, Ennore Village, Thiruvottriyur Taluk, Thiruvallur District, bearing No.27/143/2, M.R.L. Road, Ennore, Chennnai – 57 and he purchased the larger extent of lands from one Mr.Balaraman through a registered sale deed under Doc.No.3490/1982.

(b) The Writ Petitioner in W.P.No.13397 of 2018 viz., P.Manoharan is the absolute owner of the property comprised in S.No.143/2, T.S.No.30/1, New T.S.No.30/2, measuring an extent of 2300.0 square meter situated in Ward C, Block No.5, Ennore Village, Thiruvottriyur Taluk, Thiruvallur District, bearing No.27/143/2, M.R.L. Road, Ennore, Chennai 600 057 and he purchased the larger extent of lands from one Mr.Balaraman through a registered sale deed under Doc.No.3490/1982.

(c) Since the date of purchase of the properties, they have been in absolute possession and enjoyment of the same. After purchase of said lands, mutation of records were done in their names and Town Survey Field Extract (TSLR) dated 31.07.2015 reflects their names in C.A.259 of 85 and C.A.No.260/85.

(d) On the strength of mutation of records, they have also obtained planning permission from CMDA authorities, pursuant to which, they have also put up construction on their lands.

(e) Whileso, for the purpose of construction of Over Bridge, the Government of Tamilnadu had acquired the portion of the writ petitioner/Rajasekaran’s lands comprised in S.No.2/2 Part, (New No.27, Old no.143/2 part measuring an extent of 240 square meters and portion of the writ petitioner/Manoharan’s lands comprised in S.No.30/1 part (New No.30/2, Old No.143/2 Part measuring 170 square meters together with super structure thereon. After award enquiry, compensation for both the lands belonging to the writ petitioners were fixed and accordingly, the compensation amount was arrived at Rs.28,83,361/- and Rs.22,62,163/- respectively for both the writ petitioners. The value was fixed by the 2^nd respondent based on the documents produced by the writ petitioners. Pursuant to that, relevant proceedings for the land acquisitions were carried out and the