C/CA/1843/2023 ORDER DATED: 11/09/2025 IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD R/CIVIL APPLICATION (FOR CONDONATION OF DELAY) NO. 1843 of 2023 In R/FIRST APPEAL NO. 967 of 2012 ========================================================== L H OF SURESHBHAI JAYANTIBHAI AHIR (DECD.) & ORS. Versus REVABEN WD/O NATHUBHAI LALABHAI & ORS. ========================================================== Appearance: MR. PRAKASH JANI, SR. ADVOCATE with VINAY B VISHEN(7425) for the Applicant(s) No. 1,1.1,1.2,1.3 MR. SUDHIR NANAVATI, SR. ADVOCATE with MR HARSHADRAY A DAVE(3461) for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2,3.1,3.2,3.3,3.4,4,5 MR JAPAN V DAVE(5947) for the Respondent(s) No. 7 MR JIGAR M PATEL(3841) for the Respondent(s) No. 10,8,9 MR NV GANDHI(1693) for the Respondent(s) No. 11 ========================================================== CORAM:HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.Y. KOGJE and HONOURABLE MR.JUSTICE N.S.SANJAY GOWDA Date : 11/09/2025 ORAL ORDER (PER : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE A.Y. KOGJE) 1. This Civil Application is filed for following relief: “A. YOUR LORDSHIP may be pleased to admit and allow the present Civil Application; B. YOUR LORDSHIP may be pleased to admit and allow the present application to condone the delay of 455 days that has occurred in preferring Civil Application No.3 of 2023 (For setting aside of abatement) in First Appeal No.967 of 2012.” 2. First Appeal No.967 of 2012 is filed by original respondent Nos.1 C/CA/1843/2023 ORDER DATED: 11/09/2025 and 2; against judgment and decree dated 31st December, 2011 passed by Civil Court, Surat in Special Civil Suit No.183 of 2009. 3. It is the case of the applicants that the applicants herein are the heirs of the Appellant No.2 in First Appeal No.967 of 2012 and respondents herein are Original Respondents of said appeal. The Applicant No.1 is a Homemaker. The Applicant No. 2 has last year only completed his studies in Bachelor in Civil Engineering, whereas, the applicant No.3 is currently studying the Bachelors of Business Administration. It is submitted that their predecessor i.e. appellant No.2—Sureshbha Jayantibhai Ahir alongwith one Shri Dhansukhbhai Nathubhai Patel i.e. original Appellant No.1 have preferred First Appeal No.967 of 2012 before this Court being aggrieved and dissatisfied by the Judgment and order dated 31.12.2011 passed in Special Civil Suit No.183 of 2009, whereby the leaned Trial Court partly allowed the suit of the Respondent Nos.1 to 6 i.e. Org Plaintiff Nos.1 to 6 and gave declaration (i) that the Plaintiffs are the owners and occupiers of land bearing Survey No.244 and land bearing Survey Nos.837, 863 and 897 and that the Applicants have no right, title or interest over the aforesaid lands in question and that the Applicants have no right, to alienate or transfer the said lands in favour of third party, (ii) that the Will dated 31.03.1997 is void, non-est and nullity; (iii) that the memoranda of understanding dated 03.09.1998 in respect of said lands are illegal, void and non-est, and (iv) that the Applicants had no right to execute sale deeds registered at the office of the Sub-Registrar at Sr. nos.4860 in respect of Survey Nos.837, 863 and 897 and Sale deed registered at Sr. no.83 in respect of land bearing Survey No.244 in favour of Respondent Nos.7 to 10 on the basis of the Will dated 31.03.1997. It is submitted that the captioned First Appeal C/CA/1843/2023 ORDER DATED: 11/09/2025 came to be admitted vide order dated 03.04.2012 passed by this Court and accordingly the matter was posted for final hearing. After the initial two years, the appeal could came to be listed twice only, in the year 2019 and quite a few times in the year 2020. Thus, the said matter was not listed for hearing for almost 5 years since 2014. Lastly, it was listed on 21.12.2020, when the original Appellant No.1 Shri Dhansukhbhai Nathubhai Patel withdrew the captioned appeal qua him. Thereafter, the predecessor of the Applicants, Shri Sureshbhai Jayantibhai Ahir expired due to sudden heart attack on 07.04.2021 i.e. during the peak Covid-19 second wave, prevailing across the Country. Pertinently, Shri Sureshbhai Jayantibhai Ahir was involved in various court matters which he was personally looking after. Pursuant to the new auto listing system, effective from September 1, 2023, the captioned matter came to be listed on 18.10.2023. Accordingly, Applicants came to know about the pendency of the captioned appeal through their Advocate and the Applicants searched for the relevant documents in the matter so as to know about the status of the matter and after ascertaining the necessary particulars of the same, this present Application is preferred. As the Applicants were unaware of the pendency of the captioned appeal, they were not in position to file necessary applications in time and thereby caused delay of 455 days. 4. It is in the aforesaid set of circumstances that the Appeal had abated qua applicant; original defendant; Sureshbhai Jayantibhai Ahir (deceased). 5. Application was opposed by respondent Nos.1 to 6.3 contending that the applicants have pleaded in the application that the applicants C/CA/1843/2023 ORDER DATED: 11/09/2025 came to know about the pendency of the present appeals only after 18th October 2023, when the advocate informed them about the listing of these appeals. The said fact is not correct as the applicants were aware about the fact that there are many litigations by or against the deceased Appellant No.2 as pleaded in the application itself. Further assuming without admitting that the Applicants were not aware about the pendency of the present appeals, nothing stopped the Applicants to inquire about the pending litigations. There is no explanation about the same. That apart, for the sake of argument if the case of the Applicants is accepted that the Applicants were not aware about the pendency of these appeals, the fact that the Applicants came to know only after 18th October 2023 is not believable. In fact, the Applicants were aware about the same when the Applicants filed their affidavit before the Revenue Authorities. The Applicants have failed to establish that there was a sufficient cause even thereafter to approach this Court for continuing with the appeal. 6. Considering the case of the applicants on merits as well as facts narrated in the pleadings, the Court is of the view that the applicants have validly explained the delay, which has occurred in filing application for delay in setting aside the abatement. Accordingly, the delay of 455 days occurred in setting aside abatement are hereby condoned. Accordingly, this Civil Application is allowed. (A.Y. KOGJE, J) (NSSG,J) PARESH SOMPURA Original copy of this order has been signed by the Hon'ble Judges. Digitally signed by: PARESHKUMAR SOMPURA(HC00451), Principal Pvt Secretary, at High Court of Gujarat on 18/09/2025 11:28:55