1990 (11) TMI 239

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....A.D. post and was received in the Registry on the 7th day of November, 1988. In Column No. 3 of the Memo. of Appeal, the date of communication has been mentioned as 29-7-1988 and as such the appeal was received in the Registry after the expiry of limitation provided in terms of provisions of sub-section (3) of Section 129A of the Customs Act, 1962. The appellant has also filed an application for condonation of delay duly supported with an affidavit, sworn before a Notary Public. Shri C.M. Jaitly, Sqn. Ldr. has appeared on behalf of the applicant. He has reiterated the contentions made in the application for condonation of delay and has pleaded that the applicant was prevented by sufficient cause in the late filing of the appeal and the dela....

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.... employed by the legislature is adequately elastic to enable the courts to apply the law in a meaningful manner which subserves the ends of justice - that being the life-purpose for the existence of the institution of Courts; It is common knowledge that this Court has been making a justifiably liberal approach in matters instituted in this Court. But the message does not appear to have percolated down to all the other Courts in the hierarchy. And such a liberal approach is adopted on principle as it is realised that :- 1. Ordinarily a litigant does not stand to benefit by lodging an appeal late. 2. Refusing to condone delay can result in a meritorious matter being thrown out at the very thereshold and cause of justice being defeated. ....

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....erly treatment when the State is the applicant praying for condonation of delay. In fact experience shows that on account of an impersonal machinary (no one in charge of the matter is directly hit or hurt by the judgment sought to be subjected to appeal) and the inherited bureaucratic methodology imbued with the note-making, file pushing, and passing-on-the-buck ethos, delay on its part is less difficult to understand though more difficult to approve. In any event, the State which represents the collective cause of the community, does not deserve a litigant-non-grata status. The Courts therefore have to be informed with the spirit and philosophy of the provision in the course of the interpretation of the expression 'sufficient cause'. So al....