Kandaswami Mudaliar and Others vs P. Arunachala Chetti and Others

From the affidavits filed, we think that it has been established that the delay in filing the appeal was really due to the careless arithmetical mistake

of the appellant''s vakil. The party had not any opportunity of correcting this mistake in time; for, he mainly relies on his vakil''s assertion that the

appeal need not be filed until August. It would appear that the party had not the money with him, when he first went to the vakil on 1st July; but

there is no reason to disbelieve his statement that he had the money on 20th July. The delay till 24th July was due to the vakil''s earlier error in

calculation and therefore we must reject respondent''s contention that this was not really the case. There is considerable authority in the Indian

Courts for the proposition that delay caused by the mistake of the party''s vakil is sufficient cause for excusing delay u/s 5 of the Limitation Act;

vide Sunderabai v. The Collector of Belgaum AIR 1918 P.C. 135. Bakhal Chandra Ghosh v. Ashutosh Ghosh (1913) 17 C.W.N. 807 and

Vaithinatha Aiyar v. Govindasawmi Udayar AIR 1921 Mad. 650; and respondents'' vakil does not dispute it. The delay is therefore excused, but

petitioners must pay the costs of this application.