Whether It Is Mandatory To File A Formal Application For Condonation Of Delay? An Examination Of SC Judgement In Sesh Nath Sing's Case

in the context of the aforesaid issue. Eventually, a Writ Petition was filed by the said Respondent in the Patna High Court that held that the appeal before the Additional Collector ought to have been dismissed on the ground of limitation "as no application was filed for condonation of delay as contemplated by Section 5 of the Limitation Act." The Supreme Court held that since the appeal before the Additional Collector was beyond time and no application for condonation of delay had been filed under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, "there was no jurisdiction in the Additional Collector to allow that Appeal" and the appeal was liable to be dismissed on the ground of limitation. Therefore, can it be said that on the issue of filing a delay condonation application, Sesh Nath is per incuriam since the Court has not referred to previous decisions of the Supreme Court? On the other hand, in Bhagmal, the Supreme Court in the facts of the case held that the application to set aside the ex parte decree under Order 9 Rule 13 "had all the ingredients of the application for condonation of delay" and since the delay was completely interlinked with the merits of the matter, the High Court, whose order was challenged, was not justified in taking a hyper technical view that there was no application for condonation of delay filed.