Leave granted.
By an order dated 18th August, 2006, the High Court dismissed for non-
prosecution, the first appeal preferred by the appellants against the judgment and
decree dated 22nd August, 1988 passed by the District Judge, Dehradun in O.S.
No.50/1986. The application for restoration of the appeal was dismissed by the High
Court on 16th April, 2007 without adverting to the fact that absence of the counsel for
the appellants was on account non-marking of the case in his cause list. The petition
filed for review of that order was dismissed on 15th June, 2007.
Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the records, we
are convinced that the impugned orders are liable to be set aside. In our view, the
High Court should have, by taking cognizance of the averments contained in the
affidavit filed in support of the restoration application, restored the appeal by
imposing heavy costs on the appellants.
...2/-
Accordingly, the appeals are allowed, impugned orders are set aside and
First Appeal No.79 of 2001 is restored to the file of the High Court subject to the
condition of the appellants’ paying rupees fifty thousand as costs to the respondents
within eight weeks.
As the appeal was filed before the Allahabad High Court in the year 1988
and the same has remained pending
before Uttarakhand High Court for last more than twenty years,
it would be in the interest of the justice that the same is disposed of at an early date.
Accordingly, the High Court is requested to dispose of the appeal as expeditiously as
possible.
[G.S. SINGHVI] New Delhi, January 07, 2009.