JUDGMENT:

The above second appeal is filed by legal heirs of the plaintiff in O.S.No.104 of 2002. Sole plaintiff Konda Chinnapareddy Janardhana Reddy filed suit O.S.No.104 of 2002 on the file of Junior Civil Judge, Thamballapalle against the defendants seeking specific performance of agreement of sale and to direct the 1st defendant to execute the registered sale deed.

2. Suit was dismissed on contest vide judgment and decree dated 26.06.2014. Aggrieved by the said judgment and decree, sole plaintiff filed appeal A.S.No.34 of 2014 on the file of II Additional District Judge, Madanapalle. Lower appellate Court vide judgment and decree dated 11.03.2016, dismissed the appeal.

3. After dismissal of the appeal, sole appellant Konda Chinnapareddy Janardhana Reddy died on 27.03.2017 leaving behind him the other appellants as his legal heirs. Legal heirs filed the above second appeal with a delay of 1374 days. Along with second appeal, they filed I.A.No.1 of 2020 to condone the delay of 1374 days in filing the second appeal and filed I.A.No.2 of 2020 to grant leave to file appeal.

4. Wife of deceased deposed to the affidavit filed in support of the petition to condone the delay of 1374 days. Along with the affidavit, discharge summary of deceased appellant was filed. The appeal on merits was dismissed on 11.03.2016. The application to get the certified copy of judgment was made on 05.09.2020 and copy was made ready on 07.09.2020. The above second appeal was presented through Online on 21.08.2020 vide Case Number AP/2/SA/14054/21.08.2020. Even before obtaining certified copy of appeal judgment, the above second appeal was presented before this Court on 21.08.2020 by paying Court fee. The second appeal was returned on 25.08.2020 and later objections were complied with on 07.10.2020. Along with second appeal, I.A.No.1 of 2020 was filed to condone the delay of 1374 days. In the affidavit filed in support of the said petition in Paragraph-2, it was stated thus:

“I respectfully submit that due to illness I did not contact my advocate within the stipulated time and a delay of 1374 days caused. The delay caused is neither willful nor intentional due to the above mentioned reasons”.

Later better affidavit was filed seeking to condone the delay in filing the appeal. Paragraph-8, wherein the delay is explained is extracted:

“8. I submit that my husband used to look after the legal proceedings of this case and we were not aware of the same. I submit that my husband had a brain stroke on 15th August 2012 resulting in partial paralysis of his right hand and leg and loss of speech. He was not able to communicate due to his loss of speech. He slowly made a partial recovery after a year and could only speak partially. We also found that my husband had signs of dementia and would forget names and things frequently. My husband suffered a heart attack on 24th February 2017. Even during this event he was only signaling loss of breath but not paid in his chest. We immediately took him to the hospital where he was diagnosed with a massive heart attack. Subsequently, he was treated for kidney failure and severe hypertension after which he passed away on 27th March 2017. After the death of my husband the defendant tried to interfere and take possession of the said property when our people objected. They tried to intimidate us and said that the case was dismissed in their favour. We got to know about this case matter and searched and traced out the case papers in our house and thereafter when we approached my husband’s counsel, who appeared on his behalf, he instructed us to file an appeal before this Court.”

5. A perusal of both the affidavits do not indicate proper reasons to condone the delay of 1374 days in filing the second appeal. In the affidavit filing along with I.A.No.1 of 2020, at the first instance, except stating that the deponent suffered with illness, nothing was indicated. Later, in the better affidavit, it was averred that deceased suffered brain st