T. SATYANARAYANA Vs. LABOUR COURT, GUNTUR AND ANOTHER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Court at the admission stage made the following Order:- This writ petition is directed against the endorsement of the Labour Court, Guntur, returning the appeal filed by the petitioner as barred by time. It is also mentioned in the endorsement that the Labour Court has no power to condone the delay in filing the second appeal. The endorsement says that the " short order" was received by the petitioner on 29 May 1984, that the second appeal has to be filed within thirty days from the date of receipt of the short order, i. e., on or before 28 June 1984, but that the second appeal was received by post on 9 July 1984, and, therefore, it is barred by ten days.

(2.) The petitioner says that the short order means only the operative portion and that after receiving the short order, he applied for the full text of the judgment of the first appellate authority on 30 May 1984 itself. He says that it was supplied to him along with letter, dated 20 June 1984. The original letter is placed before me. It supports the said contention. In my opinion, the petitioner is entitled to wait till he gets the full text of judgment and then only decide whether to file a second appeal or not. He cannot be expected to take such a decision on the basis of a mere " short order" which does not contain the reasons for the judgment, but only the conclusion. Indeed in this case the short order, dated 19 May 1984, is also placed before me. It does not contain any reasons for its conclusion. It is also evident from the memorandum of second appeal that the petitioner enclosed the copy of the full judgment received by him along with the memorandum of second appeal. In such a case, the calculation of limitation from the date of receipt of short order is not warranted. The period taken for obtaining the full text of the judgment must be excluded from consideration while calculating the period of limitation prescribed for filling the second appeal.

(3.) Sub-section (3) of S. 41 says that a second appeal shall lie to the Labour Court " within thirty days from the date of communication of the decision." According to rule 21(2)(f) of the Andhra Pradesh Shops and Establishments Rules, 1968 :