Court emphasizes substantial justice over rigid technicalities, allowing for the condonation of a 38-day delay in filing an appeal based on insufficient justification from the respondents.

JUDGMENT :

Deepak Gupta, J.

In Civil Suit bearing CIS No.-CS-2886 of 2022 titled "MGF Developments Limited Vs. Cosmo Propbuild Pvt. Ltd. and others", an application under Order VII Rule 11 of the CPC for rejection of the plaint was moved by defendants No.l to 6 (respondents N: 1 to 5 herein), which was allowed by learned Civil Judge (Sr. Division), Gurugram vide order dated 27.05.2024, thus rejecting the plaint. This order was assailed by plaintiff (appellant herein) of the case by filing Civil Appeal bearing CIS No.CA/435/2024 before the District Court, Gurugram. Along with the appeal, an application to condone the delay of 38 days in filing the appeal under Section 5 of the Limitation Act was moved. The Court of Id. Additional District Judge, Gurugram vide impugned order dated 13.01.2025, dismissed the application for condoning the delay and consequent thereto, the appeal itself was dismissed being time barred.

2. The aforesaid order dated 13.01.2025 of the Appellate Court has been challenged by the plaintiff before this Court by way of present Regular Second Appeal with the prayer to set aside the same by condoning the delay in filing the appeal before the First Appellate Court and to remand the matter for adjudication by the First Appellate Court on merits. In the alternative, prayer is made to set aside not only the order dated 13.01.2025 of the First Appellate Court, but also to set aside the order dated 27.05.2024 of the trial Court and to restore the suit of the plaintiff to be adjudicated on merits.

3. To avoid confusion, parties shall be referred as per their status before the trial Court.

4.1 As the perusal of paperbook reveals, Emmar MGF Land Limited (later known as 'Emmar India Limited') was the holding company of the subsidiary group of companies namely, (i) M/s Sparsh Promoters Pvt. Ltd., (ii) M/s Sandesh Buildcon Pvt. Ltd. and (iii) M/s Sidhant Building Pvt. Ltd. By way of an order dated 08.01.2018, corrected on 16.07.2018 (Annexure A8) passed by National Company Law Tribunal, Principal Bench, New Delhi, Emmar MGF Land Limited merged with resulting company namely MGF Developers Ltd. i.e. the plaintiff of the present case. As per scheme of arrangement approved by NCLT, the demerged company transferred its vested rights in favour of the plaintiff company including development rights in various properties including the suit property.

4.2 On the other hand, defendant No.6 (respondent N: 6 herein) M3M India Limited is the holding company, its subsidiary group of companies being (i) Cosmo Propbuild Pvt. Ltd., (ii) Surya Propbuild Pvt. Ltd., (iii) Star City Realteck Pvt. Ltd., (iv) Neer Builders Pvt. Ltd. and, (v) Vibrant Infrateck Pvt. Ltd. - defendants No.l to 5 of this case (respondents N: 1 to 5 herein).

5. Subject matter of suit is 31.12 acres of land, situated in village Chauma, District Gurugram, detailed in para N: 13 of the plaint (Annexure Al), which was originally owned by three subsidiary companies i.e. M/s Sparsh Promoters Pvt. Ltd., (ii) M/s Sandesh Buildcon Pvt. Ltd. and (iii) M/s Sidhant Building Pvt. Ltd of Emmar MGF Land Limited (later known as Emmar India Limited). On the other hand, as per plaintiff, defendants N: 1 to 5 being holding subsidiary companies of defendant N: 6 - M3M were owners of 15.12. acres of land situated in village Mohammadpur Gujjar, Tehsil Sohna, District Gurgaon. Defendant N: 6 - M3M wanted to acquire the suit land. After negotiations between plaintiff & defendants N: 1 to 6, aforesaid lands were agreed to be exchanged and defendants N: 1 to 6 agreed to pay 114 Crore to the plaintiff by way of post-dated cheques. However, exchange of possession was to take place after clearance of the post-dated cheques.

6.1 However, disputes arose, when defendants No.l to 6 started misrepresenting that they had already acquired 31.12 acres of l