In Brief
The Supreme Court held that an appeal was maintainable under Order 43 Rule 1 CPC against the trial court's rejection of an application to restore an Order 9 Rule 13 application that had been dismissed in default. The appellant's legal heirs filed a restoration application after the original defendant died within a month of the default dismissal. The court ruled that the statutory language "rejecting an application" encompasses both default and merit-based dismissals, and that restoration applications fall under Order 9 Rule 9 and are appealable. Section 5 of the Limitation Act applied, permitting condonation of the 10-month delay where the heirs demonstrated they had no knowledge of the pending application due to the defendant's illness and death. The appeal was allowed and the matter remitted to the trial court for fresh consideration on merits.
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