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TMI Blog1988 (3) TMI 458X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e abatement of the apaeal, for bringing on record the legal representatives of the deceased Bhanwar Lal and Madan Lal and for the condonation of the delay in moving them along with his affidavits. The legal representatives of the plaintiff-Madan Lal have seriously opposed the applications. At the time of the arguments, the application for bringing the legal representatives of the deceased Bhanwar Lal was not pressed as he was sued in a representative capacity vide order-sheet dated 10-2-1988. 2. The defendant-appellant No. 2 Kishan has stated in para No. 7 of his affidavit filed in support of his application for condonation of delay that he is an illiterate person, he was ignorant of the law under which the legal representatives of a dec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... entatives on record on the failure of the counsel of a deceased-party to intimate the Court about his death. He further contended that ignorance of law is not a sufficient cause within the meading of Order 22, Rule 9(2). C.P.C. He also contended that in the aforesaid judgments of the Hon'ble Supreme Court, the earlier decisions reported in Union of India v. Ramcharan AIR 1904 SC 215 and Rangubai v. Sunderbai of three Hon'ble Judges have not been considered and the judgments of the larger benches are to be preferred to judgments of smaller benches as laid down in Mathu Lal v Radhey Lal and all the aforesaid rulings relied upon by the learned Counsel for the appellant are of benches of two Hon'ble Judges. He further contended that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... a juris neminem excusat is a fundamental priniciple of jurisprudence. The Rule , says Salmond, is absolute, and the presumption irrebuttable. No diligence of inquiry will avail against it, no inevitable ignorance or error will serve for justification...Men are conclusively presumed to know the law, and are dealt with as and ought to know it--The evidential difficulties in the way of the judicial recognition of such ignorance are insuperable, and for the sake of any benefit derivable, therefrom, it is not advisable to weaken the administration of justice by making liability dependent on well-nigh inscrutable conditions touching knowledge or means of knowledge of the law. Therefore, a mere plea of ignorance of law cannot, in our opini ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n Nanda v. Lachhman , M.P. Sugar Mills v. State of U.P. , has not been referred to. It may also be mentioned here that delay in moving the application for bringing legal representatives on record on account of ignorance of law of limitation was excused in Krishan Mohan v. Surpati Banerjee AIR 1925 Calcutta 684, Ramchandra v. Sabhapati AIR 1928 Madras 404, Mehar Singh v. Sohan Singh AIR 1936 Lahore 710 and Abdul Latif v. Fazal Ali . 7. It has been observed in Shital Prasad Saxena v. Union of India at page 3 para 6, as follows: The second error was that once an appeal is pending in the High Court, the heirs are not expected to keep a constant watch on the continued existence of parties to the appeal before the High Court which has a sea ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the legal representatives of the deceased respondent No. 5 should have been granted. We accordingly allow the appeal, set aside the order of the High Court and direct that the abatement, if any, shall be set aside and the legal representatives of deceased respondent No. 5 shall be brought on record and the writ petition shall be remanded to the high Court for disposal according to law. 9. It has been observed in Collector, Land Acquisition Anantnag v. Katigi AIR 1987 SC 1353 at page 1354 para No. 3, as follows- The legislature has conferred the power to condone delay by enacting Section 5 of the Indian Limitation Act of 1963 in order to enable the Courts to do substantial justice to parties by disposing of matters on 'merits'. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ulpable negligence, or on account of malafides. A litigant does not stand to benefit by resorting to delay. In fact he runs a serious risk; [6] It must be granted that judiciary is respected not on account of its power to legalize injustice on technical grounds but because it is capable of removing injustice and is expected to do so. 10. The provisions fixing a particular time for making an application for bringing legal representatives on record with the consequence of the suit or appeal abating, if no application is made within time, have been enacted for expeditious disposal of cases in the interest of proper administration of justice. It is a matter of great concern and serious thought that if a poor, illiterate and ignorant litig ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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