IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 5606  OF 2008 (Arising out of SLP (C) No. 16684 of 2008)

Union of India through General Manager, Western Railway, Mumbai & Anr.         ….Appellants

Versus

Fataji Chaturji & Ors.      …Respondents

O R D E R

                   1. Leave granted.   

2. This  is  an  appeal  filed  at  the  instance  of

Union  of  India  against  the  Judgment  and

final  order  dated  29th of  December,  2005

passed by the High Court of Gujarat in Civil

Application  Nos.  12992  to  13002  of  2005

with  Letters  Patent  Appeal  Nos.  1446  to

1456 of 2005, by which the High Court had

refused to condone the delay of 148 days in

filing the Letters Patent Appeals.   

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3. We  have  heard  Mr.  B.  Dutta,  learned

Additional  Solicitor  General,  appearing  for

the  appellants  and  Mr.  Vimal  Chandra  S.

Dave,  learned  counsel  appearing  for  the

respondents and considering the facts and

circumstances  of  the  case  and  the

explanations  offered  by  the  appellants  in

their  application  for  condonation  of  delay,

we are of the view that the delay in filing the

LPAs  must  be  condoned  and  LPAs  be

restored to its original file.  Accordingly, we

order the same.

4. The  High  Court  is  therefore  requested  to

dispose  of  the  LPAs  on  merits  and  in

accordance with law within a period of eight

weeks from the date of supply of a copy of

this order to it.  It is also made clear that at

the time of hearing of the LPAs, it would be

open  to  the  parties  to  question  the

maintainability  of  the  appeal  before  the

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Division  Bench,  which shall  also  be  taken

into  consideration  at  the  time  of  such

disposal.   

5. Accordingly,  the  impugned  orders  of  the

High  Court  are  set  aside.   The  appeal  is

thus allowed to the extent indicated above.

There will be no order as to costs.

            ……………………….J.              [Tarun Chatterjee]

New Delhi;                        … …………… ………J. September 11, 2008.     [Aftab Alam]

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