- (1.) The appeal of the petitioner before the Appellate Authority under Section 127 of the Electricity Act, 2003, was delayed by only a few days. It relied upon Section 127(1) of the said Act which provided that any person aggrieved by a final assessment order made under Section 126 of the Act could prefer an appeal within 30 days of that order to the Appellate Authority. Since it was not preferred within this time, the Appellate Authority felt that it had no power to condone the delay and admit it. Hence, by its order dated 30th June 2015, it dismissed the appeal on this technical ground. Therefore, the appeal was dismissed and the case of the petitioner closed before the Appellate Authority without its having to go into the merits of it.
(2.) Now, the question that arises for consideration in this writ application is whether the said Appellate Authority had the power to condone the delay. Furthermore, does this court, in exercise of its power under 226 of the Constitution of India, have the power to condone the delay and direct the Appellate Authority to hear out the appeal on merits.
(3.) In answering this question, analysing two provisions of the Limitation Act, 1963 is very necessary. They are Sections 5 and Section 29. Section 5 provides that the court has the power to condone the delay in filing an appeal or an application.;