ORDER (ORAL)

1. Heard on I.A. No.01 of 2024, which is an application under Section 173(1) of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988, filed by the Applicant, seeking condonation of 370 days’ delay, in filing the Appeal. The application is supported by an Affidavit.

2. Learned Counsel of the Applicant, while making out grounds for condoning the delay, contended that, as the impugned Judgment of the Learned Motor Accidents Claims Tribunal, at Namchi, Sikkim (hereinafter, the “MACT”), was pronounced on 30-08-2023, the Memo of Appeal ought to have been filed on 28-11-2023. The impugned Judgment was obtained on 15-09-2023 by the then conducting Counsel and forwarded to the Branch Office of the Applicant at Siliguri, the very next day. The said Office forwarded the File to the Regional Office at Kolkata on 19-09-2023, seeking their opinion regarding the filing of the Appeal. The Regional Office in turn forwarded it to their Legal Department on 25-09-2023, which returned the File on 30-09-2023 and made its way back to Kolkat