Meenakshi Madan Rai, J
1. Heard Learned Counsel for the parties on I.A. No.01 of 2024 which is an application filed by the Applicant under Section 173(1) of the Motor
Vehicles Act, 1988, seeking condonation of 83 days’ delay in filing the instant Appeal.
2. Learned Counsel for the Applicant submits that the delay occurred on account of the fact that although the Judgment was pronounced on 22-12-
2023, after obtaining the impugned Judgment online, it was forwarded to the Branch Office at Siliguri of the Applicant-Company on 02-01-2024. That,
the Branch Office at Siliguri, forwarded the File to the Regional Office at Kolkata seeking their opinion. The Regional Office at Kolkata thereafter
forwarded the File on 24-02-2024 to its Legal Department for legal opinion. The Legal Department opined on 14-03-2024 that an Appeal ought to be
filed. The File then made its way back to the Regional Office at Kolkata, which forwarded it to the Branch Office at Siliguri, where it was received on
04-04-2024. The File was ultimately received by the conducting Counsel on 12-04-2024 for preparing the Appeal. The draft of the Appeal was then
sent to the Branch Office at Siliguri on 20-04-2024, which again forwarded it to the Regional Office at Kolkata on 27-04-2024 which received the File
only on 04-05-2024. The Legal Department vetted it on 10-05-2024 and returned it to the Branch Office at Siliguri on 22-05-2024. The Branch Office
at Siliguri received it on 30-05-2024 after which it took about twelve days for preparing the Memo of Appeal which came to be filed on 12-06-2024. It
is submitted by Learned Counsel for the Applicant that the delay occurred on account of the File having to be processed as per the official procedure
and the delay was neither intentional nor was it with any other ulterior motive. Hence, the delay may be condoned as the Applicant was prevented by
sufficient cause in filing the Appeal.
3. Objecting to the prayer for delay, Learned Counsel for the Respondents No.1 to 4 submitted that the delay has not been sufficiently explained as
the Judgment was pronounced on 22-12-2023 but the application nowhere mentions when the Applicant availed of the copy of the Judgment. The File
movement indicates that the process took about twenty days’ each for transmission from one office to the next and this cannot be considered as a
sufficient ground for condoning the delay. An Execution Petition was filed before the Learned Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, Gangtok, Sikkim,
which was determined and the award amount of ₹ 20,00,000/- (Rupees twenty lakhs) only, along with interest, was released by the Applicant and
received by the Respondents No.1 to 4/Claimants, in MACT Case No.23 of 2022C, handa Chettri and Others vs. The Branch Manager, Shriram
General Insurance Company Limited and Another. Hence, the Petition for delay deserves no consideration and the amount of compensation having
been released, the Appeal itself is infructuous.
4. Learned Counsel for the Respondent No.5 had no submissions to make.
5. I have given due consideration to the submissions put forth by Learned Counsel for the parties and it is evident from the reasons detailed in the
Petition that the official procedure led to the delay. Indeed, now when all communications are being transmitted electronically, it is rather appalling that
the Applicant-Company insists on living in the 19th Century and processing the physical File from office to office eating into valuable time, which could
otherwise be utilized fruitfully. Evidently they do not even have a mechanism to expedite the process as each office appears to be drowning in its own
importance and inefficiency and expending exorbitantly long periods of time to consider steps to be taken. Nevertheless, considering that specific dates
have been given for the delay that has occurred, I find that the delay has been sufficiently explained. The delay is accordingly condoned, subject to
payment of costs of ₹ 50,000/-(Rupees fifty thousand) only, to be paid to the Respondents No.1 to 4/Claimants by the Applicant-Company within a
period of seven days from today.
6. I.A. No.01 of 2024 stands disposed of.
7. Register the Appeal.
