S.S. RATHORE v. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

Citation: [1989] SUPP. 1 S.C.R. 43

Court: Supreme Court of India

Bench: E.S. VENKATARAMIAH, SABYASACHI MUKHERJI, RANGANATH MISRA, G.L. OZA, B.C. RAY, K.N. SINGH, S. NATARAJAN

Case summary

In Gael's case the question of merger of the order of the lower authority in the order of the higher authority was considered. suit has been dismissed in the Courts below on acceptance of the defence plea that it had not been filed within three years from the date when the...

Judgment text

The Judgment of the Court was delivered by RANGANATH MISRA, J. This appeal is by special leave and is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh by which the High Court has in second appeal upheld the dismissal of the plaintiff's suit on the plea of limitation. The plaintiff, a Government servant of Madhya Pradesh, was dismissed from service by the Collector on 13th of January, 1966. He preferred an appeal to the Divisional Commissioner and that appeal was dismissed on 3LS. i966. The order of dismissal of the appeal was communicated to the plaintiff on 19. 9. 1966. The plaintiff gave notice under s. 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure on l7 . 0-. 1969 and filed his suit on 30th of September, 1969, asking for a declaration that the order .. O.. ~ of dismissal was inoperative and he continued to be i_n service.

This suit has been dismissed in the Courts below on acceptance of the defence plea that it had not been filed within three years from the date when the cause of action first arose, as required under Article 58 of the First Schedule of the Limitation Act, 1963. When this appeal came Up for hearing before a Division Bench, reliance was placed on the decision of this Court in Sita Ram Goel v. The Municipal Board, Kanpur & Ors. , [1959] SCR 1148 in support of the contention that the suit was barred by limitation. The Division Bench extracted a passage from Gael's judgment where it said: 'The result is no doubt unfortunate for the appellant, because the trial court found in his favour in regard to his plea of wrongful dismissal. If he had only brought the suit within the period prescribed by section 326 of the Act, he might possibly have got some relief from the Court. He, however, chose to.

wait till the decision of the State Government on hts appeal and overstepped the limit of time to his own detriment. We are unable to come to any other conclusion than the one reached above and the appeal must, therefore, stand dismissed; but in the peculiar circumstances of the case we make no order as to costs', and observed: "Such unfortunate results should be avoided, if it is possible to do so. We are of the view that the decision in Sita Ram Gael's case which has been decided by a Bench of five Judges requires to be reconsidered ..... " (See 1988 Suppl. SCC 522) That is how this appeal has come before the Seven Judge Bench. The plaintiff's suit was one to obtain a declaration that the order of dismissal was bad and he continued to be in service. To such a suit the Courts below have rightly applied Article 58 of the First Schedule of the Limitation Act. That Article runs thus: "58. To obtain any Three When the right to other declaration. years sue first accrues.

" Appellant's counsel placed before us the residuary Article 113 and has referred to a few decisions of some High Courts where in a S,S, RATHORE v. ;>TATE OF MADHYA PRADESH [MISRA, J. ) 47 ... situation as here reliance was placed on that Article. It is unnecessary to refer to those decisions as on the authority of the judgment of this Court in the case of Pierce Leslie & Co. Ltd. v. Violet Ouchterlony Wapshare & Ors. vice versa, [1969] 3 SCR 203, it must be held that Article 113 of the Act of 1963, corresponding to Article 120 of the old Act, is a general one and would apply to sui. ts to which no other Article in the schedule applies. The fate of this appeal, therefore, rests upon th. e finding as to when the right to sue first accrued .. All the three Courts have accepted the position that on 13. 1. 1966 when the order of dismissal was made by the Collector, the right to sue first accrued. Admittedly, the suit was not filed within a period of three years from that date.

The appeal was dismissed on 31. 8. 1966. The sixty days' time spent for complying with the requirement of notice under s. 80 of the Code of Civil Procedure was available to the plaintiff in addition to the period of three years. If the date, therefore, counts from the date of the appellate order, the suit would be within time. In Gael's case the question of merger of the order of the lower authority in the order of the higher authority was considered. Adverting to this aspect, Bhagwati, J. who spoke for the Court, said: "The initial difficulty in the way of the appellant, however, is that departmental enquiries even though they culminate in decisions on appeals or revision cannot be equated with proceedings before the regular courts of law.

"The question, therefore, turns on whether the order of the original authority becomes merged in the order of the appellate authority even where the appellate authority merely dismisses the appeal without any modification of the order of the original authority. It is obvious that when an appeal is made, the appellate authority can do one of three things, namely, (i) it may reverse the order. under appeal, (ii) it may modify that order, and (iii) it may merely dismiss the appeal and thus confirm the order without any modification. It is not disputed that in the first two cases where the order of the original authority is either reversed or modified it is the order of the appellate authority which is the operative order and if the High Court has no jurisdiction to issue a writ to the appellate authority it cannot issue a writ to the original authority.

The question therefore is wht;ther there is any difference between these two cases and the third case where the appellate authority dismisses the appeal and thus confirms the order of the original authority. It seems to. us that on principle it is difficult to draw a distinction between the first two kinds of orders passed by the appellate authority and the third kind of order passed by it. In all these three cases after the appellate authority has disposed of the appeal, the operative order is the order of the appellate authority whether it has reversed the original order or modified it or confirmed it. In law; the appellate order of confirmation is quite as efficacious as an operative order as an appellate order of reversal or modification. " · A 3-Judge Bench decision in the case of Somnath Sahu v. The State of Orissa & Ors. , [1969] 3 SCC 384 is an authority in support of the position as accepted by the two Constitution Bench judgments referred to above.

There, it was held in the case of a service dispute that the original order merged in. the appellate order of the State Government and it is the appellate decision which subsisted and became operative in law and was capable of enforcement. That judgmeni relied upon another decision of this Court in support of its view being C. /. T. v. Amrit Lal Bhagilal & Co. , [1959] SCR 713. The distinction adopted in Mohammad Noah's case between a court and a tribunal being the appellate or the revisional authority is one without any legal justification. Powers of adjudication ordinarily vested in courts are being exercised under the law by tribm1als and other constituted authorities. In fact, in respect of many disputes the jurisdiction of the court is now barred and there is a vesting of jurisdiction in tribunals and authorities. That being the position, we see no justification for the distinction between courts and tribunals in regard to the principle of merger.

On the authority of the precedents indicated, it must be held that the order of dismissal made by the Collector did merge into the order of the Divisional Commissioner when the appellant's appeal was dismissed on 31. 8. 1966. In several States the Conduct Rules for Government servants require the administrative remedies to be exhausted before the disci- . plinary orders can be challenged in court. Section 20(1) of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 provides: . "20(1). A Tribunal shall not ordinarily admit an application unless it is satisfied that the applicant had availed of aII the remedies available to him under the relevant sen/ice rules as to redressal of grievances. " The Rules relating to disciplinary proceedings do provide for an appeal against the orders of punishment imposed on public servants. Some Rules provide even a second appeal or a revision. The purport of s.

20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act is to give effect to the Disciplinary Rules and the exhaustion of the remedies available thereunder is a condition precedent to maintaining of claims under the Administrative Tribunals Act. Administrative Tribunals have been set up for Government servants of the Centre and several States have already set up such Tribunals under the Act for the employees of the respective States. The law is soon going to get crystaIIised on the line laid down under s. 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act. In this background if the original order of punishment is taken as the date when cause of action first accrues for purposes of Article 58 of the Limitation Act, great hardship is bound to result.

On one side, the claim would not be maintainable if laid before exhaustion of the remedies; on the other, if the departmental remedy though availed is not finalised within the period of limitation, the cause of action would no more be justiciable having become barred by limitation. Redressal of grievances in the hands of the departmental authorities take an unduly long time. That is so on account of the fact that no attention is ordinarily bestowed over these matters and they are not considered to be governmental business of substance. This approach has to be deprecated and authorities on whom power is vested to dispose of appeals and revisions under the Service Rules must dispose of such matters as • -. l expeditiously as possible. Ordinarily, a period of three to six months should be the outer limit. That would discipline the system and keep the public servant away from a protracted period of litigation.

We are satisfied that to meet the situation as has arisen here, it would be appropriate to hold that the cause of action first arises when the remedies available to the public serVant under the relevant service Rules as to redressal are disposed of. The question for consideration is whether it should be disposal of one appeal or ·the entire hierarchy of reliefs as may have been provided. Statutory guidance is available from the provisions of sub-ss. (2) and (3) of s. 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act. There, it has been laid down: "20(2).

For the purposes of sub-section (1), a person shall be deemed to have availed of all the remedies available to him under the relevant service rules as to redressal of grievances, (a) if a final order has been made by the Government or other authority or officer or other person competent to pass such order under such rules, rejecting any appeal preferred or representation made by such person in connection with the grievances; or (b) where no final order has been made by the Government or other authority or officer or other person competent to pass such order with regard to the appeal preferred or representation made by such person, if a period of six months from the date on which such appeal was preferred or representation was made has expired.

(3) For the purposes of sub-sections (1) and (2), any remedy available to an applicant by way of submission of a memorial to the President or the Governor of a State or to any other functionary shall not be deemed to be one of the remedies which are available unless the applicani had elected to submit such memorial. " We are of the view that the cause of action shall be taken to arise not from the date of the original adverse order but on the date when the order of the higher authority where a statutory remedy is provided ..... [1989] Supp. 1 S. C. R. entertaining the appeal or representation is made and where no such order is made, though the remedy has been availed of, a six months' period from the date of preferring of the appeal or making of the representation shall be taken to be the date when cause of action shall :be taken to have first arisen. We, however, make it clear that this principle may not be applicable when the remedy availed of has not been provided by law.

Repeated 4nsuccessful representations not provided by law are not governed by this principle. It is appropriate to notice the provision regarding limitation under s. 21 of the Administrative Tribunals Act. Sub-section (1) has prescribed a period of one year for making of the application and power of condonation of delay of a total period of six months has been vested under sub-section (3). The Civil Court's jurisdiction has been taken away by the Act and, therefore, as far as Government servants are concerned, Article 58 may not be invocable in view of the special limitation. Yet, suits outside the purview of the Administrative Tribunals Act shall continue to be governed by Article 58. It is proper that the position in such cases should be uniform. Therefore, in every such case only when the appeal or representation provided by law is disposed of, cause of action shall first accrue and where such order is not made, on the expiry of six months from the date when the appeal was.

filed or representation was made, the right to sue shall first accrue. Submission ofjust a memorial or representation to the Head ofthe establishment shall not be taken into consideration in the matter of fixing limitation. In view of what we have said above, Gael's case must be taken to have not been correctly decided. Reliance was placed by appellant's learned counsel on a recent decision of a Two Judge Bench in the case of Raghubir Jha v. State of Bihar & Ors. , [1986] Suppl. SCC 372. The conclusion reached is in accord with what we have held but the legal position was not at all referred to or examined. It is unnecessary to make any further reference to that judgment. Now coming to the facts of the present appeal.

Since the claim has been dismissed on the plea of limitation and our conclusion is that the suit was within time, the judgments of the trial Court, the First Appellate Court and the High Court are set aside and the matter fs A remitted to the trial Court for disposal in accordance with law. Too long a period has now intervened between the dismissal of the suit ~nd our order of remand. We, therefore, direct the learned trial Judge to take all effective steps open to him in law to ensure that the suit is disposed of finally before the 15th of December, 1989. Costs shall B abide the event. Y. Lal. Appeal allowed. .. ,• . ' I •