Limitation for revision applications runs from communication of the order when the affected party was not present at decision-making.

Limitation for a revision application under section 53 was to run from the date the order was communicated, not merely from the date it was signed, where the affected party was not present when the order was made. The proviso required filing within ninety days and the statutory remedy had to remain real and effective, which would be defeated if time ran only from the order date despite later dispatch and receipt. The authority therefore erred in treating the revision as time-barred, and the rejection was unsustainable; the matters were remitted for decision on merits.

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Issues: Whether, for filing a revision application under section 53, the period of ninety days is to be computed from the date of the order or from the date on which the order is communicated to the aggrieved party.

Analysis: The proviso to section 53 requires presentation of the application within ninety days from the date of the Collector's order and also requires the prescribed deposit. The order in question was not passed in the presence of the petitioners, and the record showed that it was dispatched only on a later date and received by the petitioners thereafter. In such a situation, the remedy under section 53 would be rendered ineffective if limitation were computed merely from the date the order was signed. The provision, read with the service requirements under the Rules, must therefore be construed so that the aggrieved person has knowledge of the decision and a real opportunity to invoke the statutory remedy. The authority had wrongly treated the period as running from the date of the order without considering communication of the order.

Conclusion: The limitation period under section 53 was required to be reckoned from the date of communication of the order, not merely from the date of the order. The rejection of the revision applications as time-barred was unsustainable, and the matters were remitted for decision on merits.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statutory remedy is conditioned by filing within a fixed period from the date of order, and the order is not pronounced in the presence of the affected party, limitation is to be computed from the date of communication or knowledge of the order so that the remedy remains effective and meaningful.

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