MUSHTAQ AHMAD LONE Vs. ZUBAIR AHMAD BHAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition has been filed for quashing the order dated 17.04.2017(herein after referred to as the order impugned) passed by the court of learned Additional District Judge (M.A.C.T), Baramulla (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal), by virtue of which review application filed by the respondent was allowed, thereby recalling the order dated 09.04.2015 and simultaneously the application for restoration of application for setting aside ex-parte award filed by the petitioner was also dismissed. The impugned order has been assailed on many grounds in the memo of the petition that the respondent should have resorted to appropriate remedy by challenging the said order before High Court and the Tribunal should have not gone in to the technicalities of limitation and rather should have dismissed the application for review.

(2.) Before going into the grounds of challenge it is necessary to have brief resume of facts. An ex-parte award came to be passed by the Tribunal against the petitioner and driver engaged by the petitioner on 31.12.2012. As soon as the petitioner came to know about the passing of ex parte award, he filed an application for setting aside ex-parte award on the grounds those are not necessary for the disposal of the present petition. The said application was filed before the Tribunal on 09.02.2014 and as none appeared on behalf of the petitioner so the said application was dismissed for non-prosecution by the Tribunal on 29.12.2014. The petitioner filed an application for restoration of the application for setting aside ex-parte award on 31.01.2015. The Learned Tribunal vide order dated 09.04.2015 allowed the application on the premise that the said application was filed on the same date when the application for setting aside ex-parte award was dismissed. The application was allowed as the Tribunal wrongly assumed that the same was well within the period of limitation where as the fact remained that the said application for restoration was filed on 31.01.2015.

(3.) Thereafter respondent herein laid a motion before the Tribunal seeking review of the order dated 09.04.2015 on the ground that there was a delay in filing the application for setting ex-parte award as the said application was filed by the petitioner after thirty three days of the dismissal and the error committed by the Tribunal that the application for restoration was filed on the same date when the application for setting aside ex-parte award was dismissed, was brought to the notice of Tribunal. The said application was contested by the petitioner, however, the learned Tribunal vide order dated 17.04.2017 allowed the review application and simultaneously also dismissed the application for restoration filed by the petitioner.