The central legal point established in the judgment is the judicial approach to condonation of delay in land acquisition matters, emphasizing the need for a liberal approach due to the illiteracy and poverty of villagers in our country.

ORDER

Harsimran Singh Sethi, J. (Oral). -

CM-127-CI-2021

1. Present application has been filed seeking condonation of delay of 449 days in filing the present appeal.

2. Learned counsel for the respondent-State submits that though, State has not filed any reply to the said application, but submits that delay of 449 days in filing the appeal has not been explained as it should have been, hence the same may kindly be rejected.

3. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and have gone through the record with their able assistance.

4. The plea of the applicant-appellant for the condonation of delay has to be considered in the facts and circumstances of each case. There is no straight] acket formula for accepting or rejecting an application seeking condonation of delay. The status of the parties, the reason given in the application and also the other surrounding facts, need to be appreciated while arriving at a decision whether to condone the delay or not. In the present case, the Regular First Appeal filed by the similarly situated appellants have already been allowed.

5. While considering the question of law on the condonation of delay, in somewhat similar circumstances, the delay in filing first appeal has been condoned by this Court while deciding CM-2617-CI-2020 in RFA No. 1226 of 2020 vide order dated 07.12.2020 where the delay in filing appeal was of 1110 days. The relevant paragraph of the order passed by this Court dated 07.12.2020 is as under:-

"No doubt, the present appeals have been filed after expiry of the limitation prescribed under law. The accompanying appeals relates to the acquisition proceedings wherein, the land of the applicant-appellants has been acquired by the respondent-State. The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India has settled the point with regard to the prayer seeking condonation of delay in respect of the appeals arising out of the land acquistion matters. While deciding Civil Appeal No.10799 of 2013. titled as Imrat Lal and others Vs. Land Acquisition Collector and others, on 29.11.2013. the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India held that a liberal approach should be adopted while considering the application seeking condonation of delay in respect of the land acquisition matters as villagers in our country are mostly illiterate. The Court condoned the delay of 1110 days in filing the appeal before the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India. The relevant paragraph of the said judgment is as under:-

"13. We can take judicial notice of the fact that villagers in our country are by and large illiterate and are not conversant with the intricacies of law. They are usually guilded by their co-villagers, who are familiar with the proceedings in the Courts or the advocates with whomthey get in touch for redressal of their grievance. Affidavits filed in support of the applications for condonation of delay are usually drafted by the advocates on the basis of half baked information made available by the affected persons. Therefore, it the acquistiion matters involving claim for awards of just compensation, the Court should adopt a liberal approach and either grant time to the party to file better affidavit to explain delay or suo motu take cognizance of the fact that large number of other similarly situated persons who were affected by the determination of compensation by the Land Acquisition Officer or the Reference Court have been granted relief.

14. In Civil Appeal Nos. 5335-5336 of 2013 titled Samiyathal and others Vs. Special Tahsildar and others decided on 05.07.2013, this Court took cognizance of the fact that many landowners may not have been able to seek intervention of this Court for grant of enhanced compensation due to illiteracy, poverty and ignorance and issued direction that those who have not filed special leave petition should be given enhanced compensation. The relevant portion of the judgment passed in that case is extracted below:

"We further direct the respondents and the State of Tamil Nadu to pay the same amount of c