RATANLAL MALVIYA Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard learned counsel for the parties. The special leave is granted.

(2.) The appellant was appointed as a social worker on ad hoc basis in 1981. In the year 1987, he was declared to have acquired quasi-permanent status. His services were terminated by an order passed simpliciter on 3/12/1991. He filed a departmental appeal which was ultimately dismissed. He thereafter challenged the order of his termination by filing a suit which was later transferred to the Administrative tribunal. The Administrative tribunal dismissed the suit on several grounds including that of limitation. The judgment of the tribunal is under challenge before us in the present appeal.

(3.) It is the admitted position before us that the appeal, which had been filed before the department and was ultimately dismissed, was a statutory one. But the tribunal has not correctly appreciated the position and has assumed that there was no right of appeal under the statute and that the so-called appeal of the appellant was merely a representation. It therefore held that the transferred suit was barred by rule of limitation. If the limitation is calculated from the date when the appeal was dismissed, the suit was admittedly within time. We, therefore, reverse the finding of the tribunal recorded against the appellant on the plea of limitation.