KUNHAYAMMA Vs. MUNSIFF LAND TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question raised in this writ appeal is whether in respect of an execution application filed before the Land Tribunal, there is power in the Tribunal to excuse the time limit within which the said application should have been filed and execution pursued. The Tribunal by Ext. P2 order held that it had a power to excuse the time limit for filing the execution application. It accordingly condoned the delay in filing the application, and took the application on file. The learned Judge dismissed the writ petition, filed to quash the Tribunal's order. S.102, sub-s.(1) of the Land Reforms Act provides for an appeal against the order of the Land Tribunal to be filed "within such time as may be prescribed" to the appellate authority. Sub-s.(2) enables the appellate authority to admit the appeal presented after the period mentioned in sub-s.(1) for sufficient cause. S.103 provides for a right of revision to the High Court. S.108 of the Act enacts that unless otherwise expressly provided the provisions of S.5 of the Indian Limitation Act 1908 shall apply to all proceedings under the Act (it is inappropriate that an Act passed in 1964 should refer to the provisions of the Indian Limitation Act of 1908 which Act had, by that time been repealed and replaced by the Limitation Act 1963). R.22 of the Land Reforms Tenancy Rules provides that the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the rules made thereunder and the Limitation Act, 1963, shall, so far as may be, apply to execution under sub-r.1 of that rule and all matters connected therewith. S.26 sub-s.(3) of the Act provides the period within which an application has to be made to the Land Tribunal. The provision reads as follows:

(2.) Counsel for the appellant invited our attention to the various proceedings contemplated under the provisions of the Act, as for instance, S.13A, S.16A and so on, and stated that it cannot be assumed that it was the intention of the legislature to extend the provisions of the Limitation Act to all these proceedings. We need not speculate on the possible intentions of the legislature or the consequences of giving free rein to the same. Delimitation on grounds of repugnancy to the context may perhaps supply a solution. There is no need to think on those lines here.