JUDGMENT :

SYED AFTAB HUSAIN RIZVI, J.

1. This Second Appeal is directed against an order of the learned Additional District Judge, Court No. 4 Mau, Misc. Case No. 103 of 2018 (Jokhan and Others vs. Murtaza and Others) rejecting an application to condone the delay in preferring an appeal from the judgment and decree of the Additional Civil Judge (Junior Division) Court No. 8 Azamgarh dated 24.01.1998 passed in Original Suit No. 540 of 1986.

2. Relevant facts for the decision of the second appeal are that respondents-plaintiffs filed a Suit for cancellation of sale deed and injunction against the appellants-respondents. In that original suit the appellants-respondents filed their counter claim seeking relief of possession and injunction against the plaintiffs-respondents. The learned trial court vide judgment and decree dated 24.01.1998 dismissed the original suit as well as the counter claim. This decree was challenged by the plaintiffs-respondents in civil appeal no. 54 of 1998 which was later transferred to the District Mau and numbered as Civil Appeal No. 20 of 2014 and is still pending. The appellants-defendants preferred an appeal belatedly under Section 96 of CPC against dismiss