ORDER :

K. MURALI SHANKAR, J.

The Civil Miscellaneous Petition has been filed invoking Section 5 of Limitation Act seeking orders to condone the delay of 1424 days in filing the second appeal, challenging the judgment and decree made in A.S.No.148 of 2015 dated 27.11.2018 on the file of the First Additional Subordinate Court, Tiruchirappalli, partly allowing the judgment and decree passed in O.S.No.316 of 2005 dated 23.02.2012 on the file of the District Munsif Court, Manapparai.

2. The petitioner is the defendant. The respondents as plaintiffs filed a suit in O.S.No.316 of 2005 on the file of the District Munsif Court, Manapparai to declare that the suit property is belonging to them and for consequential permanent injunction restraining the petitioner / defendant and his men from in any manner interfering with the respondents / plaintiffs' peaceful possession and enjoyment of the suit property. The petitioner / defendant filed his written statement and contested the suit. The learned District Munsif, Manapparai, after framing necessary issues and after full trial, passed a judgment and decree dated 23.02.2012 dismissing the suit. Aggrieved by the dismissal of the suit, the respondents / plaintiffs preferred an appeal in A.S.No.148 of 2015 and the learned First Additional Subordinate Judge, Tiruchirappalli, upon considering the materials available on record and on hearing the arguments of both the sides, passed a judgment and decree dated 27.11.2018 partly allowing the appeal and thereby granting the declaration that the respondents / plaintiffs are the title holders of the suit property and confirmed the judgment of the trial Court so far as the dismissal of the permanent prohibitory injunction. Challenging the said judgment and decree, the petitioner / defendant has filed the present second appeal along with the above petition to condone the delay of 1424 days in filing the second appeal.

3. The case of the petitioner canvassed in the delay condonation petition is that the appellate Court passed the judgment and decree on 27.11.2018, that the petitioner's counsel before the trial Court filed copy application on 01.12.2018 and printing charges were called for on 04.03.2019, which came to be deposited on 08.03.2019, that copies of the judgments and decrees of the trial Court as well as the appellate Court were made ready on 17.09.2019 and the same were delivered to the petitioner's counsel on 13.11.2019, that though the petitioner's counsel assured the petitioner that as soon as he received the copies of the judgments and decrees, he will inform him and hand over the same for filing the second appeal but he failed to do so, that the petitioner's repeated queries to his counsel also did not evoke proper response, that the petitioner received summons from the Subordinate Court, Manapparai on 04.02.2022 with respect to the suit in O.S.No.10 of 2022 filed by the respondents against him seeking the relief of recovery of possession of property involved in the present suit on the basis of the judgment and decree passed in A.S.No.148 of 2015, that the petitioner, upon receipt of summons, contacted his counsel and demanded explanation but no explanation was forthcoming, that after repeated requests, the entire back papers along with copies of the judgments and decrees were handed over to the petitioner only during 3^rd week of September 2023, that due to the petitioner's old age and poor health condition, he was not in a position to travel to Madurai and instruct his counsel to file the second appeal till April 2024, that the petitioner handed over the papers during April 2024 and his counsel prepared the second appeal and prior to filing of the same, certified copies of the appellate Court records were misplaced by the clerk attached to counsel office and despite diligent search, they could not trace the same and that only during a fortnight ago, the said copies were found to be mixed up with the pending second appeal of the year 2024 in