Nitin Mahadeo Jawale & Ors. vs Bhaskar Mahadeo Mutke

Court

Supreme Court of India

Date

22 November 2024

Case No.

SLP (Civil) No. 27824 of 2024

Result

Dismissed

Bench

J.B. Pardiwala, R Mahadevan

Citation

[2024] 11 S.C.R. 1318 : 2024 INSC 902

Acts & Sections

Limitation Act, 1963

Issue for consideration

Whether the High Court was correct in setting aside the order passed by Trial Court wherein, Trial Court condoned the delay of 4½ Years for filing of written statement.

Headnote

Limitation Act, 1963 – Whether a party may be allowed to file written statement with a delay of 4½ Years:

Held: The Court has noticed that the growing tendency on the part of the litigants in throwing the entire blame on the head of the advocate for the delay – Even if the Court assumes that the advocate was careless or negligent, this, by itself, cannot be a ground to condone long and inordinate delay as the litigant owes a duty to be vigilant of his own rights and is expected to be equally vigilant about the judicial proceedings pending in the court initiated at his instance – The litigant should not be permitted to throw the entire blame on the head of the advocate and thereby disown him at any time and seek relief – The High Court was correct in setting aside the Trial Court’s order – Therefore, the petition fails and is dismissed. [Paras 6, 7, 8]

Order 1. Delay condoned. 2. This petition arises from the Order passed by the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Bench at Aurangabad in Writ Petition No.15056 of 2019 dated 12th April, 2024 by which the High Court allowed the petition filed by the original plaintiff (respondent no.1 herein) and thereby set aside the order passed by the Joint Civil Judge, Junior Division, Jamkhed condoning the delay of 4½ years in filing the written statement. 3. The petitioners herein are the original defendants and respondent no.1 herein is the original plaintiff. 4. It appears from the materials on reco

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