JAYADEV SWAIN Vs. VATSALA RAGHU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD learned counsel for the petitioner on applicability of Section 5 of the Limitation Act to the Contempt Proceeding. It is the case of the petitioner that the learned Central Administrative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the 'C.A.T.) directed the present opposite parties to reinstate him into service within ten days from the date of receipt of a copy of the judgment and within 30 days therefrom to pay all his emoluments with effect from the date on which the petitioner was put off from duty till the day prior to his reinstatement into service. The said order was passed on 6.5.1994. Due to non -compliance of the opp.parties the petitioner filed O.J.C. No. 14751 of 1998 before this Court as the learned C.A.T. expressed his helplessness to implement his own order. In the writ (O.J.C. No. 14751 of 1998), this Court passed the order on 29.11.2000 directing the opp.parties for complying the order of learned Tribunal forthwith and allow the petitioner to joining his former post. Due to non -compliance of order of this Court dt.29.11.2000 the petitioner has filed the present Contempt Proceeding (CONTC No. 98 of 2003) on 3.10.2002 i.e. after a period for about one year & eleven months with an application to condone the delay with a medical certificate showing his illness from 1.9.2001 to 30.9.2002 vide Annexure -A to the Misc.petition. Learned counsel for the petitioner submits to condone the delay by applying Section 5 of the Limitation Act as he could not approach this Court for his illness 'amounting to sufficient cause' for non -filing within a period of one year from the date of violation of the order of this Court.

(2.) THE present position of law governing the field of application of Section 5 is enumerated in the following decisions of the Apex Court. In 1996 (5) SCC 342 : The State of West Bengal and Ors. v. Kartick Chandra Das and Ors.

(3.) IN the present case, this Court directed the opp.parties to appoint the petitioner forthwith on 29.11.2000. Construing the same date to be the violation of the order the Contempt application should have been filed within one year i.e. 28.11.2001. But the same has been filed on 3.10.2002 with an application to condone the delay under Section 5 of the Limitation Act.