LI Network
Published on: October 5, 2023 at 10:55 IST
The Kerala High Court, in a rent control case, has ruled that subsequent legal advice received by a party cannot serve as a valid ground for condoning the delay in filing an appeal.
The court stated that accepting subsequent legal advice as a reason for delay condonation would undermine the purpose of the Limitation Act.
Justices P.B. Suresh Kumar and P.G. Ajithkumar issued this judgment while dismissing a rent control revision petition. They noted that Section 15 of the Rent Control Act, based on the principle of estoppel, prevents the re-agitation of an issue in a subsequent proceeding if it has already been conclusively determined in an earlier proceeding.
In the case at hand, the petitioner, a tenant, challenged the landlord’s title in the eviction petition. The challenge was unsuccessful, and the petition was disposed of on its merits. However, the petitioner failed to file an appeal within the statutory period but later sought legal advice, prompting her to file the appeal belatedly. The delay in filing the appeal was not condoned, leading to its dismissal. The petitioner then moved a revision petition before the High Court.
The High Court rejected both the revision petitions. In the first petition, the Court found that the appeal was time-barred under the Limitation Act because it was filed only after receiving subsequent legal advice. The Court emphasized that allowing delay condonation on the grounds of post-factum legal advice would defeat the purpose of the Limitation Act, which aims to establish fixed timeframes for legal remedies.
In the second rent control revision petition, the Court cited various decisions, including a Supreme Court case, to affirm the principle that issues conclusively determined in earlier stages of rent control proceedings cannot be re-agitated at later stages. Therefore, the Court held that the petitioner could not re-agitate the title of the landlord, as it had already been decided and had achieved finality.
Consequently, the Kerala High Court dismissed both revision petitions, upholding the original decisions in the rent control cases.