KULWANT SINGH Vs. CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has approached this Court with a prayer for quashing order dated 11.10.2001 (P.4) passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Chandigarh Bench, Chandigarh (for brevity 'the Tribunal') dismissing O.A. No. 1170/Pb. 1996. THE claim made by the petitioner in the OA was for setting aside the dismissal order dated 16.1.1996 on the post of MW 150. THE petitioner was issued a show cause notice on the basis of the judgements of the Court of Addl. Sessions Judge and Chief Judicial Magistrate, Amritsar wherein he was found guilty of the charge of illegally possessing the property of the railway which was recovered from his possession. Accordingly, he was found guilty of offence under Section 3 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966. Lateron he was released on probation. On the basis of order of sentence, a show cause notice was issued to the petitioner and after following the procedure of granting opportunity to file reply and hearing, the petitioner was dismissed from service vide order dated 16.1.1996 (P.3). THEreafter he challenged the order before the Tribunal and his O.A. was dismissed on 11.10.2001. THEreafter the petitioner filed RA No.2 of 2007 and the same was also dismissed on 19.1.2007. 2THE instant petition has been filed on 15.4.2010 after inordinate delay of about 8 years, if the period is counted from the initial order of the Tribunal which was disposed of on 11.10.2001. Even if the delay is reckoned from the date of order dismissing the review application dated 19.1.2007, the present petition is hopelessly delayed by over three years. THEre is no plausible explanation as to why the petitioner kept quite for eight years or in any case for more than three years. It is now well settled that even for filing a writ petition the period of limitation as prescribed for filing a suit is considered reasonable i.e. three years. By no standard such a huge delay could be condoned and the petition could be heard on merits. In that regard reliance may be placed on the judgements of Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the cases of State of Madhya Pradesh v. Bhailal Bhai AIR 1964 SC 1006 and S.S.Rathore v. State of M.P. AIR1990 SC 10. 3. As a sequel to the above discussion, the writ petition fails and the same is dismissed.