New Delhi: The Supreme Court has held that
cases cannot be dissmissed by courts on mere technicalities
like delay in filing appeals/petitions as the issue involved
has to be fought on merits by the disputing parties.
The apex court said unless a malafide intent is shown on
the part of the petitioner/appellants, courts should normally
deal with the case on merits.
"It is the duty of the court to see to it that justice
should be done between the parties. It is pertinent to point
out that unless malafides are writ large on the conduct of the
party, generally as a normal rule, delay should be condoned.
"In the legal arena, an attempt should always be made to
allow the matter to be contested on merits rather than to
throw it out on such technalities," a bench of Justices Deepak
Verma and K S Radhakrishnan said in its order.
The apex court passed the order while upholding an appeal
filed by the Improvement Trust, Ludhiana, challenging the
concurrent orders passed by the District Judge and the
Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The two lower courts had earlier dismissed the Trust`s
appeal challenging a civil court`s decision to auction the
Trust property towards realisation of money for paying
compensation to certain owners whose land were acquired by it
in 1992.
The Trust`s appeal were dismissed by the two courts on
the ground that it was filed two months beyond the period of
limitation.
Upholding the Trust`s appeal, the apex court said that
in the present case there was no material to show that it had
deliberately delayed in filing the appeal after the limitation
period.
PTI
