ASHWANI KUMAR Vs. PUNJAB AND HARYANA HIGH COURT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) (Oral) - This Regular Second Appeal under Sec. 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC) impugns the Judgment of the First Appellant Court dated 10.5.2014 by which the first appellate court allowed the first appeal filed under Sec. 96 Code of Civil Procedure by the respondents herein against the Judgment of the Trial Court dated 8.5.2012. The First Appellate Court by its Judgment dated 10.5.2014 has set aside the Judgment of the Trial Court dated 8.5.2012 which had decreed the suit filed by the appellant/plaintiff questioning his dismissal from services on the basis of the orders passed by the Disciplinary Authority, Appellate Authority and the Revisional Authority. The effect of the impugned judgment of the first appellate court is that the suit filed by the appellant/plaintiff, and which was decreed by the trial court by the Judgment dated 8.5.2012, was dismissed. The first appellate court dismissed the suit by holding that the Order of the Disciplinary Authority dated 20.12.1996 challenged by the appellant/plaintiff in the suit was not a proper legal challenge because the Order of the Disciplinary Authority dated 20.12.1996 had merged into the Orders passed by the Appellate Authority dated 25.9.1997 and the Revisional Authority dated 20.4.1999, and finally the Order of the Central Government dated 30.2.2003 (this is a non-existent order as stated hereinafter) and since the suit only challenged the Order of the Disciplinary Authority dated 20.12.1996 and not the orders of the higher authorities in which the order of the Disciplinary Authority merged, therefore, the suit was mis-conceived and liable to be dismissed for failing to challenge the Orders of the Appellate Authority dated 25.9.1997, Revisional Authority dated 20.4.1999 and the suo moto Order of the Central Government dated 30.2.2003.

(2.) There are two main issues to be decided with respect to the present second appeal. First is whether the suit filed by the appellant/plaintiff challenging the Orders passed by the Departmental Authorities filed on 15.7.2003 is or is not within limitation. Related with this first issue, and which aspect has transpired during the course of hearing of this second appeal is that even if the limitation for filing of the suit is to be taken from the Order of the Central Government dated 30.2.2003, whether the suit is not maintainable and is filed within limitation because there does not at all exist any Order of the Central Government dated 30.2.2003. The second issue to be examined is whether the suit itself was not maintainable being barred by res judicata on account of the orders of the departmental authorities which were statutory authorities, could only have been challenged by means of filing of proper petition under Articles 226 and/or 227 of the Constitution of India, and which was not done.

(3.) At the outset, let me reproduce Sections 8 and 9 of the Central Industrial Security Force Act, 1968 (hereinafter referred to as 'the CISF Act'), and which provisions provides for the orders to be passed by the Disciplinary Authority, Appellate Authority, Revisional Authority and the Central Government, and which provisions read as under:-