MULJI GANGARAM OF VIVEKANANDA MILLS Vs. F JEEJEEBHOY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners preferred an application under Section 79 of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act XI of 1947 for being reinstated in the service of opponent 3. The application was dismissed on 5 May;1953. Against the said order of dismissal the petitioners preferred an appeal to the industrial court. The appeal was despatched by registered post on 4 June 1954 from Ahmedabad and was received in the office of the industrial court on 5 June 1954. Thereafter the appeal was posted for the hearing, and the industrial court took the view that the appeal not having been preferred within thirty days from the date on which the order appealed from was passed, it was barred by the law of limitation. Accordingly the appeal was dismissed. An appeal against that order to the Labour Appellate Tribunal was also dismissed. The petitioners have now come to this Court with a request to issue writs under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India for an order vacating the order of the industrial court holding that the appeal filed by them to that tribunal was not barred by the law of limitation.

(2.) THE petitioners put strong reliance upon a recent Full Bench Judgment of this Court in Civil Revision Application No. 1116 of 1953 delivered on 22 April 1955, in which it was held that where a litigant has been given a right to prefer an appeal by presenting a memo of appeal either in the office of the Appellate Tribunal or by sending it by registered post, delivery of the memorandum of appeal to the post office with a direction that it be sent by registered post is sufficient compliance with the rule, and the appeal must be deemed to be properly filed if the papers have been properly delivered in the post office within the period of limitation. The view taken by the Full Bench was that when an option is given to a litigant to prefer an appeal by sending it by registered post, the post office is constituted an agent of the court in which the appeal is to be preferred, and handing over the papers to the post office would be deemed to be lodging the appeal with the court.

(3.) SECTION 84 of the Bombay Industrial Relations Act provides in the second sub-section that every appeal shall be made within thirty days from the date of the decision, conviction, acquittal or sentence, as the case may be. In the present case the order appealed from was passed on 5 May 1954, and thirty days expired on 4 June 1954. The petitioners handed over the memorandum of appeal in the post office at Ahmedabad on 4 June 1954. The papers were accordingly delivered in the post office within thirty days from the date of the order appealed from as provided by Section 84. Section 84 does not state that the appeal shall be filed in the office of the tribunal within the period of thirty days from the date of the order appealed from. The legislature has advisedly used the expression "appeal shall be made within thirty days" in Section 84.