Himachal Pradesh High Court
Smt. Meena Kumari vs The State Of H.P. And Others on 5 April, 2023
Bench: Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Virender Singh
IN THE HIGH COURT OF HIMACHAL PRADESH, SHIMLA
CWP No.1074 of 2023.
.
Date of decision: 05.04.2023.
Smt. Meena Kumari .....Petitioner.
Versus
The State of H.P. and others .....Respondents.
Coram
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge.
The Hon'ble Mr. Justice Virender Singh, Judge.
Whether approved for reporting?1 No.
For the Petitioner : Mr. Naresh Kaul, Advocate.
For the Respondents : Mr. Anup Rattan, Advocate
General with Mr. Navlesh
Verma, Additional Advocate
General, Ms. Priyanka
Chauhan, Deputy Advocate
General and Mr. Rajat
Chauhan, Law Officer.
Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge (Oral)
Notice. Ms. Priyanka Chauhan, learned Deputy Advocate General, appears and waives service of notice on behalf of the respondents.
2. The instant petition has been filed for grant of the following substantive relief:
1Whether the reporters of the local papers may be allowed to see the Judgment?Yes ::: Downloaded on - 06/04/2023 20:33:42 :::CIS 2 "That a writ in the nature of mandamus may kindly be issued directing the respondents to consider & .
decide the detailed representation dated 15.12.2022 (Annexure P-9) and thereafter, regularize the services of the petitioner as Lecturer (Pol. Science) w.e.f.
20.04.2007, when the services of the petitioner were taken over by the respondent-State, being similar to Sh. Pawan Kumar in whose favour order dated 08.09.2022 (Annexure P-7) has been issued, with all consequential benefits, in the interest of law and justice."
3. Evidently, what the petitioner seeks is to interfere with the claim, which at best accrued, in the year 2007.
4. It is not in dispute that at the relevant time, disputes of the instant kind would lie only with the Administrative Tribunal that was functional in this State and the same is clearly barred by limitation under Section 21 of the Administrative Tribunal Act, 1985 (for short 'Act'), which reads as under:
"21. Limitation. - (1) A Tribunal shall not admit an application,--
(a) in a case where a final order such as is mentioned in clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 20 has been made in connection with the grievance unless the ::: Downloaded on - 06/04/2023 20:33:42 :::CIS 3 application is made, within one year from the date on which such final order has been made;
.
(b) in a case where an appeal or representation such as is mentioned in clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 20 has been made and a period of six months had expired thereafter without such final order having been made, within one year from the date of expiry of the said period of six months.
(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where-
(a) the grievance in respect of which an application is made had arisen by reason of any order made at any time during the period of three years immediately preceding the date on which the jurisdiction, powers and authority of the Tribunal becomes exercisable under this Act in respect of the matter to which such order relates; and
(b) no proceedings for the redressal of such grievance had been commenced before the said date before any High Court, the application shall be entertained by the Tribunal if it is made within the period referred to in clause (a), or, as the case may be, clause (b), of sub-section (1) or within a period of six months from the said date, whichever period expires later. (3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) or sub-section (2), an application may be admitted after the period of one year specified in clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (1) or, as the case may be, the period of six months specified in sub-section (2), if the applicant satisfies the Tribunal that he had ::: Downloaded on - 06/04/2023 20:33:42 :::CIS 4 sufficient cause for not making the application within such period."
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5. While considering the aforesaid Section, the Hon'ble Supreme Court in D.C.S. Negi vs. Union of India and others, decided on 07.03.2011 in SLP (C) No.7956 of 2011, has very clearly delineated the powers of the Tribunal in respect of limitation and it was held that Section 21 of the Act unambiguously mandates the period within which Government employee has to agitate before the Tribunal for consideration and adjudication of his case and it is apt to reproduce the following observations:
"A reading of the plain language of the above reproduced Section makes it clear that the Tribunal cannot admit an application unless the same is made within the time specified in clauses (a) and (b) of Section 21 (1) or Section 21 (2) or an order is passed in terms of sub-section (3) for entertaining the application after the prescribed period. Since Section 21 (1) is couched in negative form, it is the duty of the Tribunal to first consider whether the application is within limitation. An application can be admitted only if the same is found to have been made within the prescribed period or sufficient cause is shown for not doing so within the prescribed period and an order is passed under Section 21 (3).::: Downloaded on - 06/04/2023 20:33:42 :::CIS 5
In the present case, the Tribunal entertained and decided the application without even adverting to the .
issue of limitation. Learned counsel for the petitioner tried to explain this omission by pointing out that in the reply filed on behalf of the respondents, no such objection was raised but we have not felt impressed. In our view, the Tribunal cannot abdicates its duty to act in accordance with the statute under which it is established and the fact that an objection of limitation is not raised by the respondent / non- applicant is not at all relevant."
6. The petition is otherwise barred by the principles of delay and laches as the petitioner has not been able to show any due diligence as to why she kept sleeping over a period of 15 years.
7. Since, the present petition is barred by delay and laches, therefore, this Court need not to go into the merits of the case and the same is accordingly dismissed, along with pending application(s), if any.
(Tarlok Singh Chauhan) Judge (Virender Singh) Judge 5th April, 2023.
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