Limitation exclusion under Section 14 fails for proceedings before a certifying officer or Labour Court under standing orders law.

Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963 applies only to a prior civil proceeding prosecuted with due diligence and in good faith before a court unable to entertain it for want of jurisdiction or a like cause. A proceeding before a certifying officer or appellate authority under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 is not a civil proceeding for this purpose, even though the authority may exercise limited civil-court powers under Section 11. The same character applies to the appellate stage, and later resort to writ proceedings does not alter that nature. Time spent before the Labour Court could not therefore be excluded, and the belated appeal remained time-barred.

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Issues: Whether the time spent in pursuing an appeal before a Labour Court, which had no jurisdiction to hear the matter, could be excluded under Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963 so as to save a belated appeal under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.

Analysis: Section 14(2) applies only where the earlier proceeding is a civil proceeding prosecuted with due diligence and in good faith in a court which is unable to entertain it because of defect of jurisdiction or a like cause. Proceedings before a certifying officer under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946 are not civil proceedings, because they do not initially determine civil rights or their infraction. Although the certifying officer and appellate authority are clothed with certain powers of a civil court for limited purposes under Section 11 of the Act, that does not convert the authority into a court for the purposes of Section 14. The same character attaches to the appellate proceeding, and the fact that the matter was later taken to the writ side does not alter the nature of the earlier proceeding.

Conclusion: Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act, 1963 could not be invoked to exclude the period spent before the Labour Court. The appeal before the appellate authority remained time-barred and its admission was invalid.

Ratio Decidendi: Exclusion of time under Section 14 of the Limitation Act is available only for a prior civil proceeding prosecuted in a court; a proceeding before a certifying officer or Labour Court under the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act is not such a proceeding, even if the forum has some trappings of a civil court.

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