J U D G M E N T

Petitioner is the additional 4th respondent in OP(MV) No.322/2008. The OP was tried along with OP(MV) No.903/2009. The present original petition is confined to the proceedings in OP(MV) No.322/2008.

2. On 27.03.2013, an ex parte award was passed against the petitioner. He was impleaded in the said proceedings as the RC owner. According to the petitioner, he was abroad and unaware of the proceedings. He came to know about it only in the course of recovery proceedings when notice for recovery was affixed at his residence. Even at that time the petitioner was abroad and the fact of service of notice by affixture was intimated to him by his brother. Accordingly the petitioner filed IA Nos.1336/2018 and 1337/2018 seeking to set aside the ex parte award and to condone the delay in filing the application. The delay involved is almost five years. The Tribunal as per Ext.P15 order dismissed the applications. It is aggrieved thereby that the petitioner is before this Court.

3. Before the Tribunal, the petitioner got himself examined as PW1 and the copy of the passport was marked as Ext.A1. Though through his oral evidence supported by Ext.A1 passport, the petitioner sought to h