JUDGMENT

Sanjib Banerjee, CJ. - The appeal is directed against a judgment and order of February 17, 2014 passed on a writ petition instituted in the year 2012.

2. The appeal was filed after a colossal delay of 861 days and it appears that the application for condonation of delay was not pursued with due diligence despite such application being filed in 2016. The relevant application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1963 came to be allowed by an order of November 24, 2021. It is necessary to notice the two material paragraphs of the relevant order:-

'The primary ground made out is that the appellant acted on erroneous advice. However, a serious objection is put up by the respondent, including the ground that the appellant had already acted in terms of the order and, thus, can no longer prefer an appeal thereagainst. Without prejudice to the respondent's contention that the conduct of the appellant precludes the appellant from filing or proceeding with the appeal, in view of the sufficient cause shown, the delay in preferring the appeal is condoned. Let the appeal appear for appropriate consideration a week hence.'

3. Courts are, by and large, reluctant to shut out a litigant on th