TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1995 (7) TMI 369
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.... the appellant herein whose appeal before the appellate authority was dismissed as time barred and the application for condonation of delay was treated to be not maintainable before the appellate authority. A few relevant facts leading to these proceedings may now be looked at. The appellant is a tenant occupying the suit premises belonging to respondent-landlord. The respondent filed Rent Control Petition No. 117/92 before the Rent Control Court, Kannur, Kerala State, seeking eviction of the appellant-tenant under Section 11(2) (a) (b) and Section 11(3) of the Rent Act on the grounds of default in payment of rent and bonafide need for the purpose of conducting grocery shop for his son, plaintiff no. 2. The Rent Control Court exercising its power under Section 11 of the Rent Act, passed an order for possession against the appellant on 28th October, 1993. The appellant applied for certified copy of the said order on 29.10.93. He obtained certified copy of the order on 23.11.93. It is the case of the appellant that he entrusted on 4.12.93 all the relevant papers to his counsel for filing appeal. His counsel called him in the next following week for signing vakalatnama and for comp....
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....Court' to mean the court constituted under Section 3. Section 3 of the Rent Act provides that the Government may by notification appoint a person who is or is qualified to be appointed a Munsiff, to be the Rent Control Court for such local areas. Section 5 of the Act deals with the dertermination of fair rent on application of the tenant or landlord to the Rent Control Court. Section 11 deals with the grounds on which an application can be made to the Rent Control Court by landlord for evicting his or her tenant. Proviso of Section 11 lays down that where the tenant denies the title of the landlord or claims right of permanent tenancy, the Rent Control Court shall decide whether the denial or claim is bona fide and if it records a finding to that effect, the landlord shall be entitled to sue for eviction of the tenant in a Civil Court and such court may pass a decree for eviction on any of the grounds mentioned in this Section, notwithstanding that the Court finds such denial does not involve forfeiture of the lease or that the claim is unfounded. Section 14 deals with execution of orders passed by Rent Control Court. It provides that such orders after the expiry of the time allowe....
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...., an order of the Rent Control Court shall be final and shall not be liable to be called in question in any court of law, except as provided in Section 20." Section 19 deals with power to award costs. It lays down that subject to such conditions and limitations, if any, as may be prescribed, the costs of and incident to all proceedings before the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority shall be in the discretion of the Rent Control Court or the appellate authority. Section 20 deals with revision. It lays down that in cases where the appellate authority empowered under Section 18 is a Subordinate Judge, the District Judge and in other cases the High Court may at any time, on the application of any aggrieved party, call for and examine the records relating to any order passed or proceedings taken under this Act by such authority for the purpose of satisfying itself as to the legality, regularity or propriety of such order proceedings, and may pass such order in reference thereto as it thinks fit. Section 20(A) gives power to remand the proceedings and provides that in disposing of an appeal or application for revision under this Act, the appellate authority or the revising a....
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....aid Act have been extended, the powers of the Appellate Authorities for the purposes of the said Act, in the said areas." In the background of the aforesaid relevant statutory provisions and the notification issued thereunder we have to proceed to tackle the question posed for our consideration. As noted earlier the appellate authority, namely the District Judge, Thallassery has taken the view that since he is a persona designata he cannot resort to Section 5 of the Limitation Act for condoning the delay in filing appeal before him. So far as this reasoning of the appellate authority is concerned Mr. Nariman, learned counsel for respondent fairly stated that he does not support this reasoning and it is not his say that the appellate authority exercising powers under Section 18 of the Rent Act is a persona designata. In our view the said fair stand taken by learned counsel for respondent is fully justified. It is now well settled that an authority can be styled to be persona designata if powers are conferred on a named person or authority and such powers cannot be exercised by anyone else. The scheme of the Act to which we have referred earlier contra indicates such appellate aut....
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....bvious that appellate authorities as constituted under Section 18 of the Rent Act being the District Judges they constituted a class and cannot be considered to be persona designata. It is true that in this connection, the majority decision of the High Court in Jokkim Fernandez Vs. Amina Kunhi Umma (supra) also took a contrary view. But the said view also does not stand scrutiny in the light of the statutory scheme regarding constitution of appellate authority under the Act and the powers conferred on and the decisions rendered by it. Once it is heldthat the appellate authority functioning under Section 18 of the Rent Act is not a persona designata, it becomes obvious that it functions as a court. In the present case all the District Judges having jurisdiction over the areas within which the provisions of the Rent Act have been extended are constituted as appellate authorities under Section 18 by the Govt. notification noted earlier. These District Judges have been conferred the powers of the appellate authorities. It becomes therefore, obvious that while adjudicating upon the dispute between the landlord and tenant and while deciding the question whether the Rent Control Court'....
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.... court or not are applied to the powers and functions of the appellate authority constituted under Section 18 of the Rent Act, it becomes obvious that all the aforesaid essential trappings to constitute such an authority as a court are found to be present. In fact, Mr. Nariman learned counsel for respondent also fairly stated that these appellate authorities would be courts and would not be persona designata. But in his submission as they are not civil courts constituted and functioning under the Civil Procedure Code as such, they are outside the sweep of Section 29(2) of the Limitation Act. It is therefore, necessary for us to turn to the aforesaid provision of the Limitation Act. It reads as under: "S.29(2) Where any special or local law prescribes for any suit, appeal or application a period of limitation different from the period prescribed by the Schedule, the provisions of Section 3 shall apply as if such period were the period prescribed by the Schedule and for the purpose of determining any period of limitation prescribed for any suit, appeal or application by any special or local law, the provisions contained in Sections 4 to 24 (inclusive) shall apply only insofar as,a....
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....own by a majority decision of the Constitution Bench of this court in the case of Vidyacharan Shukla Vs. Khubchand Baghel and Ors. (AIR 1964 SC 1099), when the first schedule of the Limitation Act prescribes no time limit for a particular appeal, but the special law prescribes a time limit for it, it can be said that under the first schedule of the Limitation Act all appeals can be filed at any time, but the special law by limiting it provides for a different period. While the former permits the filing of an appeal at any time, the latter limits it to be filed within the prescribed period. It is therefore, different from that prescribed in the former and thus Section 29(2) would apply even to a case where a difference between the special law and Limitation Act arose by the omission to provide for limitation to a particular proceeding under the Limitation Act. It is also obvious that once the aforesaid two conditions are satisfied Section 29(2) on its own force will get attracted to appeals filed before appellate authority under Section 18 of the Rent Act. When Section 29(2) applies to appeals under Section 18 of the Rent Act, for computing the period of limitation prescribed for....
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....rring appeals and making applications came under the latter category. So if the power to condone delay contained in Section 5 had to be exercised by the appellate body it had to be conferred by the special law. That is why we find in a number of special laws a provision to the effect that the provision contained in Section 5 of the Limitation Act shall apply to the proceeding under the special law. The jurisdiction to entertain proceedings under the special laws is sometimes given to the ordinary courts, and sometimes given to separate tribunals constituted under the special law. When the special law provides that the provision contained in Section 5 shall apply to the proceedings under it, it is really a conferment of the power of the court under Section 5 to the Tribunals under the special law-whether these tribunals are courts or not. If these tribunals under the special law should be courts in the ordinary sense an express extension of the provision contained in Section 5 of the Limitation Act will become otiose in cases where the special law has created separate tribunals to adjudicate the rights of parties arising under the special law. That is not the intension of the legisl....
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....o salvage the situation by submitting that even if conditions for applicability of Section 29(2) get satisfied, Section 29(2) itself will not apply to them unless it is held that the appellate authority functioning as a court was constituted under the Civil Procedure Code. He contended that unless such courts functioning under special law or local law are constituted under the Civil Procedure Code, Section 29(a) cannot apply to them. This submission is required to be stated to be rejected as it would amount to moving in a circle. If according to Mr. Nariman Section 29(2) can apply to only those courts which are constituted under the Civil Procedure Code then the entire scheme of Limitation Act from Sections 3 to 24 onwards would apply to proceedings of such courts on its own force and in that eventuality provisions contained in Section 29(2) for applying Sections 4 to 24 of Limitation Act, 1963 to such court proceedings would be rendered otiose and redundant. Mr. Nariman tried to get out of this situation by submitting that because of provisions of first part of Section 29(2). Section 3 of the Limitation Act, 1963 is treated to have applied to the periods of limitation prescribed b....
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....oresaid submission he invited our attention to four judgments of this court. We will therefore turn to the consideration of these judgments. The first judgment on which reliance was placed by Mr. Nariman is rendered in the case of Town Municipal Council, Athani Vs. Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Hubli & Ors. (1970(1) SCR 51). In that case a bench of two learned Judges of this court was concerned with the short question whether any period of limitation governed an application under Section 33(c) (2) of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The High Court had taken the view agreeing with the Labour Court that Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963 would govern such applications. Reversing that view it was held that Labour Court exercising powers under Section 33 (C) (2) of Industrial Disputes Act may be acting as quasi judicial authority or even a court but as it was not a civil court contemplated by the Civil Procedure Code, Article 137 of the schedule to the Limitation Act could not get attracted. Bhargava. J. speaking for this court held that Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963 governs only applications presented to courts under the Civil and Criminal Procedure Codes. The use o....
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....1) of Section 3 of Limitation Act lays down that subject to the provisions contained in Sections 4 to 24 (inclusive), every suit instituted, appeal preferred and application made after the prescribed period shall be dismissed although limitation has not been set up as a defence. It becomes therefore clear that the Act as such governs period of limitation prescribed for suit, appeal or application under the schedule and the schedule to the Limitation Act which consists of different divisions relates to proceedings which are to be filed before full-fledged civil or criminal courts as the case may be. First division deals with suits. Part I deals with suits relating to accounts. Part II deals with suits relating to contracts. Part III deals with suits relating to declarations. Part IV deals with suits relating to decrees and instruments. Part V deals with suits relating to immovable property. Part VI deals with suits relating to movable property. Part VII deals with suits relating to tort. Part VIII deals with suits relating to trusts and trust property. Part IX deals with suits relating to miscellaneous matters. Part X deals with suits for which there is no prescribed period. It i....
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....137 of the Limitation Act of the schedule to the Limitation Act of 1963 to proceedings before Labour Court under Section 33(C) (2) of Industrial Disputes Act. The reasons given by us while dealing with Town Municipal Council, Athani Vs. Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Hubli & Ors. (supra) would squarely get attracted so far as this decision is concerned and would make it inapplicable to the facts of the present case. The third decision to which our attention was invited was rendered in the case of Kerala State Electricity Board, Trivandrum Vs. T.P.K.K. Amsom and Besom, Kerala (1977 (1) SCR 996). In that decision this court was concerned with similar question whether Article 137 of the Limitation Act, 1963 could be made applicable to petitions under Indian Telegraph Act, 1885. Under the said Act petition could be filed under Section 16(5) by anyone claiming financial compensation against Electricity Board which tried to put up electricity poles in the land of such a person. Such application would lie before District Judge of the District. The question was whether to such applications under special or local law, Article 137 would apply. It was held that the District Judge under the ....
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.... is easy to visualise that if Section 14(2) applied to applications for revisions under Section 10 (3) (B) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act, then even if such fruitless proceedings had lingered on for one or two years or even more the entire period spent in such proceedings would get excluded for computing the period of limitation for filing such revisions under Section 10(3) (B) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. However, there was an express provision in sub-section (3) (B) of Section 10 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act putting a ceiling on the powers of the revisional authority even on proof of sufficient cause to entertain such applications and that was only upto a further period of six months beyond one year as prescribed. Consequently, this express provision to the contrary as found in Section 10(3) (B) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act made the general provisions of Section 14(2) inapplicable as it was an express provision to the contrary to what is provided by Section 14(2). It is precisely for that reason that this court in the aforesaid decision speaking through Sarkaria, J. held that the object, the scheme and language of Section 10 of the Sales Tax Act do not permit the invocation of Section 14(2) o....
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....rtified copy of the order of the lower authority was required to be excluded for computing period of limitation for filing revision under Section 10, as per provisions of Section 12 of the Limitation Act. Khanna, J. speaking for this court held that for the purpose of determining any period of limitation prescribed for any application by any special or local law, the provisions contained in Section 12(2), inter alia, shall apply in so far as, and to the extent to which they are not expressly excluded by such special or local law, and there is nothing in the U.P. Sales Tax Act expressly excluding the application of Section 12(2) of the Limitation Act. Consequently, the said provision was held applicable to the filing of revision applications under Section 10 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. It becomes therefore obvious that the aforesaid decision clearly applied Section 29(2) to the revision petitions filed before revision authorities under a special law like U.P. Sales Tax Act and via Section 29(2) applied Section 12(2) of the Limitation Act to such revisional proceedings. Mr. Nariman contended that the said decision was per incurium as the earlier decision of three learned Judges in The....
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....is necessarily and implicitly based on the applicability of Section 29(2) but for which Section 5 of the Limitation Act would not have been made applicable to such revision proceedings before revenue court functioning under the special law. Before parting with the discussion on this question we may also refer to one submission of Shri Nariman. He submitted that Sections 4 to 24 of the Limitation Act would apply to civil courts as duly constituted under the Civil Procedure Code and if that is so even if they are to be made applicable to suit, appeal or application governed by periods of limitation prescribed by any special or local law, they necessarily require such suit, appeal or application to be filed under special or local law before full-fledged civil courts as otherwise Sections 4 to 24 by themselves would not apply to them. It is difficult to agree. It has to be kept in view that Section 29(2) gets attracted for computing the period of limitation for any suit, appeal or application to be filed before authorities under special or local law if the conditions laid down in the said provision are satisfied and once they get satisfied the provisions contained in Sections 4 to 24 s....