Srinagar: The High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh on Wednesday ruled that the law of limitation has to be applied with all its vigour and rigor, as prescribed by the Statute, while dismissing a plea seeking condonation of delay of 2051 days.
The court recorded that one cannot escape the consequences of the provisions of the ‘Law of Limitation’ which provides that for the extension of the period of limitation in a given case, the condition precedent is that the applicants have to satisfy the court that they have sufficient cause for not preferring the appeal or application within the stipulated time.
“The courts cannot come to the aid and rescue of the litigant where the application for condonation of delay does not spell out sufficient cause and the approach of the litigant, in making such application, is casual and cryptic,” the Bench of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey and Justice Mohd Akram Chowdhary recorded.
Giving reference to Supreme Court directives, the bench noted that the conduct, behaviour and attitude of a party relating to its inaction or negligence are relevant factors to be taken into consideration.
“The fundamental principle is that the courts are required to weigh the scale of balance of justice in respect of both parties and the said principle cannot be given a total go-by in the name of liberal approach,” the bench recorded.
It was further noted by the bench that if the explanation offered is concocted or the grounds urged in the application are fanciful, the courts should be vigilant not to expose the other side unnecessarily to face such litigation.
The bench said, “Neither leisure nor pleasure has any room while one moves an application seeking condonation of delay of almost seven years on the ground of lack of knowledge or failure of justice.”
The bench recorded that there has been a reckless delay of 2051 days in filing the appeal and no satisfactory explanation has come forward on that count except for routine words and phrases.
The bench noted that a liberal approach has to be adopted in the matter of condonation of delay when there is no gross negligence or deliberate inaction or lack of bonafides on the part of the litigant, but in the instant case, the applicants/ appellants took their own time to formulate an opinion that the appeal has to be filed.
“It has nowhere been stated that they were, at all, prevented earlier to take such a decision. The applicants/ appellants have been negligent in prosecuting their claim within time and the explanation offered for the delay in filing the appeal is neither plausible nor reasonable,” the court remarked.
It was also pointed out by the court that the application appears to have been drafted recklessly without giving a proper account of the dates and details of the grounds agitated in it.
“In the above background, we are of the considered opinion that the applicants/ appellants have failed to explain the huge delay of 2051 days in filing the appeal,” the court ruled.

NUSRAT SIDIQ