In a subsequent judgment of Sree Balaji Nagar Residential Association v. State of Tamil Nadu, a two-judge bench of this Court further elucidated the concept of taking possession by holding that the period during which an order of stay is in operation is not excluded by Section 24(2) of the 2013 Act. Consequently, this Court held that an operation of stay would not ameliorate a failure to take possession and that such acquisition proceedings would be deemed to have lapsed. Relying on these two decisions, the present respondent landowners approached the High Court from 2014 to 2017 seeking declaration that the acquisition proceedings initiated by had lapsed because of non-payment of compensation or non-taking of possession. Following the dictum in Pune Municipal Corporation (supra) and Sree Balaji Nagar Residential Association (supra), the High Court allowed the landowners' claim and declared the acquisition proceedings as lapsed. The appellants preferred SLPs against some of these orders, many of which were in turn dismissed by this Court either in liminal or after granting leave. We not that a factor common to most of the matters mentioned in paragraph above is that they were filed after the expiration of the period of limitation. The quantum of delay differs in each case, and while it is less in the cases filed in the first category, it is significantly long in the second and third categories. Hence, at this stage, it is important to first examine at length the prayer for condonation of delay and the maintainability of these petitions before delving into the merits of each case. The appellants were represented by Ld. Attorney General for India, Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, Ld. Additional Solicitor General, and Senior Advocates, including Ms. Rachna Srivastava, Mr. Sanjay Poddar, Mr. Sanjib Sen, and Mr. Kailash Vasdev. From the side of Respondents, we were assisted by an array of Senior Advocates, including Mr. Dhruv Mehta, Mr. Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Mr. Jayant Bhushan, MR. Jayant me Ms. Vibha Datta Makhija, and Mr. Vikas Sings, and Ms. Bansuri Swaraj, Advocate. The Limitation Act, 1963 (Limitation Act) is a statute of repose founded on considerations