The main legal point established in the judgment is the need to consider the grounds for delay condonation and the liberal approach to adjudicate an issue on its merits.

JUDGMENT :

In all these writ petitions, they have quite elaborative factual background, but the same is not required to be considered, at this stage, where the issue is only confined to as to whether, the revisional court, at the stage of considering the delay condonation application filed in support of the revision under section 219 of the Land Revenue Act, could have rejected the delay condonation application, without even considering the grounds, which were taken in the delay condonation application and that too by the cursory observations and by being over dominated, bythe plea taken by the other side that the delayed revision has been preferred, after a delay of over six years.

2. The question would be, as to whether there was a reasonable delay of six years or not, which could have been only decided, subject to the condition that the revisional court has considered the logic pleaded for condonation of the delay as sought by the State in filing the revision. In the proceedings, which were arising out of section 54 of the Land Revenue Act of 1901, the matter travelled before the appellate court, and the appellate court decided the matter by the judgment dated 13.09.2001, against which the revision has been preferred by the petitioner. The revision when it was preferred, it accompanied with it an application for seeking a condonation of the delay, and the reasons for condonation of the delay was also explained in the memorandum of the revision itself, as contained in paragraph no.2, which is extracted hereunder:-

^^2- ;g fd fuxjkuh esa iz'Ukxr vkns'k fnukad 6-9-2001 ,oa 13-9-2021 dh tkudkjh lgk;d vfHkys[k vf/kdkjh m/keflaguxj }kjk i= la[;k 916@,-vkj-vks@ihŒdsŒ@fnukad 30-03-2007 dks ftykf/kdkjh egksn; dks fn;s tkus ds mijar gqvkA ftykf/kdkjh egksn; }kjk fn;s x;s funsZ'k ds Øe esa i=koyh dk ijh{k.k o lR; izfrfyfi izkIr gksus ij voj U;k;ky; }kjk dksbZ fof/kd izfØ;k viuk, fcuk fof/kfo:) vkns'k ikfjr fd, tkus ds dkj.k iz'uxr vkns'k ls {kqC/k gksdj ;g fuxjkuh izLrqr dh tk jgh gSA^^

3. The reason taken by the State for seeking condonation of the delay was that, the impugned order passed by the appellate authority on 06.09.2001, 13.09.2001, the knowledge of the same was not be attributed to the State, till the same was actually brought to the knowledge of the petitioner by the order of the Assistant Record Officer videits communication No.916/ARO/PK dated 30.03.2007, when it was submitted before the DM, and it was at the stage when the DM was brought to the knowledge of the earlier orders dated 06.09.2001 and 13.09.2001, the District Magistrate had given the directions to prefer a revision, against the appellate order, and consequently the revision was preferred, by filing the same before the court of Record Officer on 10.05.2007.

4. The said delay condonation application came up for consideration before the revisional court, and the revisional court, in a very cursory manner by the impugned order dated 18.06.2014, has rejected, the delay condonation application. Primarily, even if the reasons which has been taken into consideration as assigned by the court for rejecting the delay condonation application, the court had observed that prior to deciding the revision, the delay condonation application was required to be considered. There cannot be any dispute with regards to the said preposition of law, as the decision on the delay condonation application, prior to the venturing to decide the revision on merits is a condition precedent, which has to be decided first, before hearing revision on merits. Hence, while considering the delay condonation application, the court of Record Officer has only given the following observations:-

^^eSus i=koyh dk lE;d voyksdu fd;k rFkk i{kks ds fo}ku vf/koDrkx.k dh cgl dk ifj'khyu fd;kA fuxjkuh esa loZ izFke fopkj.kh; fcUnq ;g gS fd fuxjkuh dks xq.k&nks"k ds vk/kkj ij fuLrkj.k djus ls iwoZ fuxjkuh dk foYkEc ds fcUnq ij /kkjk 5 fe;kn vf/kfu;e ds izkFkZuk i= dk fuLrkj.k fd;k tkuk vko';d gS vFkok ughA ekΠrh