TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (4) TMI 849
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....s to be levied on this tonnage. On 3.3.1992, the appellant cleared the vessel on payment of customs duty on the basis of 7009 metric tons and executed a bank guarantee for Rs. 19,90,275/- being the difference in customs duty on 1561 metric tons. On 25.3.1992, the Collector of Customs, Rajkot, directed the Assistant Collector, Bhavnagar to encash the bank guarantee furnished by the appellant. On 2.4.1992, the Superintendent of Customs and Central Excise sent a letter to the appellant communicating the decision of the Collector, as aforesaid. The bank guarantee was duly encashed on 3.4.1992. After protesting against the said illegal action of the Department in encashing the bank guarantee, the appellant preferred an appeal against the Superintendent's letter dated 2.4.1992 and the Collector's order dated 25.3.1992 before CEGAT. On 23.6.1998, the Appellate Tribunal allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the Collector dated 25.3.1992. In the year 2000, the Department preferred an appeal before this Court. On 12.3.2003, this Court allowed the appeal holding: "This appeal is against a judgment dated 23.6.1998 passed by the Customs, Excise And Gold (Control) Appellate Trib....
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....s) against the order passed by the Superintendent, Customs dated 2.4.1992. On 4.8.2003, an application to condone delay in filing the appeal was made in the following terms: "As appeal against the order of the Supdt. of Customs was filed by us within 60 days of the receipt of the certified true copy of the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court. It is our respectful submission that since the appeal was filed by us before the correct forum with due dispatch after receipt of the Supreme Court's judgment, there has been no delay in filing the appeal. It is well settled now that the time taken for pursuing a remedy before another appellate Forum is to be excluded for the purpose of computing the period for filing an appeal. (Union Carbide India Ltd. Vs. CC 1998 (77) ECR 376, Karnataka Minerals & Mfg. Co. Ltd. Vs. CCE 1998 (101) ELT 627)." 3. By an order dated 27.10.2003, the Commissioner of Customs (Appeals) dismissed the appeal on the ground of delay stating that the appeal had been filed way beyond the period of 60 days plus 30 days provided for in Section 128 of the Customs Act. Against this order, CESTAT dismissed the appeal of the appellant stating that the Commissioner....
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.... not apply to Tribunals but only to Courts, and the Collector (Appeals) was at best a quasi-judicial Tribunal. Further, according to him, no question of any principle of section 14 would get attracted. In fact, according to him, there is no pleading qua Section 14 at all - the only pleading is for condonation of delay and not for exclusion of time. Section 14 requires that five necessary ingredients must be satisfied on facts before it can be attracted. The appellant has neither pleaded nor proved any of these ingredients. He also cited a number of authorities which we will refer to in the course of this judgment. Ingredients of Section 14. Section 14 of the Limitation Act reads as follows: "14. Exclusion of time of proceeding bona fide in court without jurisdiction.-(1) In computing the period of limitation for any suit the time during which the plaintiff has been prosecuting with due diligence another civil proceeding, whether in a court of first instance or of appeal or revision, against the defendant shall be excluded, where the proceeding relates to the same matter in issue and is prosecuted in good faith in a court which, from defect of jurisdiction or other ca....
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.... (4) The earlier proceeding and the latter proceeding must relate to the same matter in issue and; (5) Both the proceedings are in a court." 7. Technically speaking, Shri A.K. Sanghi, may be correct. However, in an application for condonation of delay the appellant pointed out that they were pursuing a remedy before another appellate forum which ought to be excluded. We deem this averment sufficient for the appellant to contend that Section 14 of the Limitation Act or principles laid down under it would be attracted to the facts of this case. We might also point out that conditions 1 to 4 mentioned in the Consolidated Engineering case have, in fact, been met by the appellant. It is clear that both the prior and subsequent proceedings are civil proceedings prosecuted by the same party. The prior proceeding had been prosecuted with due diligence and in good faith, as has been explained in Consolidated Engineering itself. These phrases only mean that the party who invokes Section 14 should not be guilty of negligence, lapse or inaction. Further, there should be no pretended mistake intentionally made with a view to delaying the proceedings or harassing the oppos....
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....n applicant derives his right to apply; (iii) any person whose estate is represented by the applicant as executor, administrator or other representative; (e) "defendant" includes- (i) any person from or through whom a defendant derives his liability to be sued; (ii) any person whose estate is represented by the defendant as executor, administrator or other representative; (i) "plaintiff" includes- (i) any person from or through whom a plaintiff derives his right to sue; (ii) any person whose estate is represented by the plaintiff as executor, administrator or other representative;" 10. Section 3(2) which is material states as follows: "3(2) For the purposes of this Act- (a) A suit is instituted- (i) In an ordinary case, when the plaint is presented to the proper officer; (ii) In the case of a pauper, when his application for leave to sue as a pauper is made; and (iii) In the case of a claim against a company which is being wound up by the court, when the claimant first sends in his claim to the official liquidator; (b) Any claim by way of a set off or a counter cl....
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....earlier date. (2) Nothing in sub-section (1) shall apply to a case where a party is added or substituted owing to assignment or devolution of any interest during the pendency of a suit or where a plaintiff is made a defendant or a defendant is made a plaintiff. Schedule 124. For a review of judgment by a court other than the Supreme Court. Thirty days The date of the decree or order. 130. For leave to appeal as a pauper -- (a) to the High Court; Sixty days The date of decree appealed from. (b) to any other court. Thirty days The date of decree appealed from. 131. To any court for the exercise of its powers of revision under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (5 of 1908), or the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898). Ninety days The date of the decree or order or sentence sought to be revised. It will be seen that suits and appeals that are covered by the Limitation Act are so covered provided court fees prescribed for such suits or appeals are paid. Under Section 13, set out hereinabove, this becomes clear. That is why time is excluded in cases where leave to file a suit or ....
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....f the dispute between them is a question of fact, the ascertainment of the fact by means of evidence adduced by the parties to the dispute and often with the assistance of argument by or on behalf of the parties on the evidence; (3) if the dispute between them is a question of law, the submission of legal argument by the parties, and (4) a decision which disposes of the whole matter by a finding upon the facts in dispute and application of the law of the land to the facts so found, including where required a ruling upon any disputed question of law. A quasi-judicial decision equally presupposes an existing dispute between two or more parties and involves (1) and (2), but does not necessarily involve (3) and never involves (4). The place of (4) is in fact taken by administrative action, the character of which is determined by the Minister's free choice." 18. Under our constitutional scheme of things, the judiciary is dealt with in Chapter IV of Part V and Chapter V of Part VI. Chapter IV of Part V deals with the Supreme Court and Chapter V of Part VI deals with the High Courts and courts subordinate thereto. When the Constitution uses the expression "court", it refers to this....
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....dustrial Tribunal or a Labour Court. The alterations made in the article and in the new Act cannot, in our opinion, justify the interpretation that even applications presented to bodies, other than courts, are now to be governed for purposes of limitation by Article 137." Similarly, in Nityananda, M. Joshi & Ors. v. Life Insurance Corporation & Ors., (1969) 2 SCC 199, this Court followed the judgment in Athani's case and turned down a plea that an application made to a Labour Court would be covered under Article 137 of the Limitation Act. This Court emphatically stated that Article 137 only contemplates applications to courts in the following terms: "3. In our view Article 137 only contemplates applications to Courts. In the Third Division of the Schedule to the Limitation Act, 1963 all the other applications mentioned in the various articles are applications filed in a court. Further Section 4 of the Limitation Act, 1963, provides for the contingency when the prescribed period for any application expires on a holiday and the only contingency contemplated is "when the court is closed." Again under Section 5 it is only a court which is enabled to admit an application aft....
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....udiciary. Their functions are the assessment and collection of taxes and in the process of assessing taxes, they follow a pattern of action which is considered judicial. They are not thereby converted into courts of civil judicature. They still remain the instrumentalities of the State and are within the definition of 'State' in Article 12." 9. The above observations were quoted with approval by this Court in Jagannath Prasad case [AIR 1963 SC 416 : (1963) 2 SCR 850 : 14 STC 536] and it was held that a Sales Tax Officer under U.P. Sales Tax Act, 1948 was not a court within the meaning of Section 195 of the Code of Criminal Procedure although he is required to perform certain quasi-judicial functions. The decision in Jagannath Prasad case it seems, was not brought to the notice of the High Court. In view of these pronouncements of this Court, there is no room for argument that the Appellate Authority and the Judge (Revisions) Sales tax exercising jurisdiction under the Sales Tax Act, are "courts". They are merely Administrative Tribunals and "not courts". Section 14, Limitation Act, therefore, does not, in terms apply to proceedings before such tribunals." It then went o....
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....d grant relief." 22. It is clear that this judgment clearly laid down two things - one that authorities under the Sales Tax Act are not "courts" and thus, the Limitation Act will not apply to them. It also laid down that the language of Section 10 (3-B) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act made it clear that an unusually long period of limitation had been given for filing a revision application and therefore said that the said Section as construed by the Court would not be unduly oppressive. Most cases would, according to the Court, be filed within a maximum period of 18 months but even in cases, rare as they are, filed beyond such period, the revising authority may on its own motion entertain the revision and grant relief. Given the three features of the U.P. Sales Tax Act scheme, the Court held that the legislature deliberately excluded the application of the principle underlying Section 14 except to the limited extent that it may amount to sufficient cause for condoning delay within the period of 18 months. 23. Close upon the heels of this judgment comes another 3-Judge Bench decision under the same provision of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. In this judgment, another 3-Judge Bench in C.S.T....
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.... Court which held that the Limitation Act applies only to courts and not to Tribunals, this Court in this case held to the contrary. In distinguishing the Parson Tools' case, which is a 3-Judge Bench binding on the Court that decided Mukri Gopalan's case, the Court held:- "If the Limitation Act does not apply then neither Section 29(2) nor Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act would apply to proceedings before him. But so far as this Court is concerned it did not go into the question whether Section 29(2) would not get attracted because the U.P. Sales Tax Act Judge (Revisions) was not a court but it took the view that because of the express provision in Section 10(3) (B) applicability of Section 14(2) of the Sales Tax Act was ruled out. Implicit in this reasoning is the assumption that but for such an express conflict or contrary intention emanating from Section 10(3)(B) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act which was a special law, Section 29(2) would have brought in Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act even for governing period of limitation for such revision applications. In any case, the scope of Section 29(2) was not considered by the aforesaid decision of the three learned Ju....
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....of the Limitation Act. On review of the provisions of the Act of 1996 this Court finds that there is no provision in the said Act which excludes the applicability of the provisions of Section 14 of the Limitation Act to an application submitted under Section 34 of the said Act. On the contrary, this Court finds that Section 43 makes the provisions of the Limitation Act, 1963 applicable to arbitration proceedings. The proceedings under Section 34 are for the purpose of challenging the award whereas the proceeding referred to under Section 43 are the original proceedings which can be equated with a suit in a court. Hence, Section 43 incorporating the Limitation Act will apply to the proceedings in the arbitration as it applies to the proceedings of a suit in the court. Sub-section (4) of Section 43, inter alia, provides that where the court orders that an arbitral award be set aside, the period between the commencement of the arbitration and the date of the order of the court shall be excluded in computing the time prescribed by the Limitation Act, 1963, for the commencement of the proceedings with respect to the dispute so submitted. If the period between the commencement of the arb....
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....of the Limitation Act did not, in terms, apply to the proceedings before such tribunals. 26. From the judgment of the Supreme Court in CST [(1975) 4 SCC 22 : 1975 SCC (Tax) 185 : (1975) 3 SCR 743] it is evident that essentially what weighed with the Court in holding that Section 14 of the Limitation Act was not applicable, was that the appellate authority and the revisional authority were not "courts". The stark features of the revisional powers pointed out by the Court, showed that the legislature had deliberately excluded the application of the principles underlying Sections 5 and 14 of the Limitation Act. Here in this case, the Court is not called upon to examine scope of revisional powers. The Court in this case is dealing with Section 34 of the Act which confers powers on the court of the first instance to set aside an award rendered by an arbitrator on specified grounds. It is not the case of the contractor that the forums before which the Government of India undertaking had initiated proceedings for setting aside the arbitral award are not "courts". In view of these glaring distinguishing features, this Court is of the opinion that the decision rendered in CST [(197....
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....pendency of proceedings before the wrong forum could not be excluded while computing the period of limitation by applying Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act. This Court, however, held that by applying the principle underlying Section 14(2), the period of pendency before the wrong forum may be considered as a "sufficient cause" for condoning the delay, but then having regard to Section 10(3-B), the extension on that ground could not extend beyond six months. The observation that pendency of proceedings of the nature contemplated by Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act, may amount to a sufficient cause for condoning the delay and extending the limitation and such extension cannot be for a period in excess of the ceiling period prescribed, is in the light of its finding that Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act was inapplicable to revisions under Section 10(3-B) of the U.P. Sales Tax Act. These observations cannot be interpreted as laying down a proposition that even where Section 14(2) of the Limitation Act in terms applied and the period spent before wrong forum could therefore be excluded while computing the period of limitation, the pendency before the wrong forum should be conside....
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....d in a court under a special or local law that the provision gets attracted. This is made even clearer by a reading of Section 29(3). Section 29(3) states:- "29. Savings.- (3) Save as otherwise provided in any law for the time being in force with respect to marriage and divorce, nothing in this Act shall apply to any suit or other proceeding under any such law." 29. When it comes to the law of marriage and divorce, the Section speaks not only of suits but other proceedings as well. Such proceedings may be proceedings which are neither appeals nor applications thus making it clear that the laws relating to marriage and divorce, unlike the law of limitation, may contain proceedings other than suits, appeals or applications filed in courts. This again is an important pointer to the fact that the entirety of the Limitation Act including Section 29(2) would apply only to the three kinds of proceedings mentioned all of which are to be filed in courts. 30. It now remains to consider the decision of a 2-Judge Bench reported in P. Sarathy v. State Bank of India, (2000) 5 SCC 355. This judgment has held that an abortive proceeding before the appellate authority under ....
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....n some technical ground. Obviously the word "court" in Section 14 takes its colour from the preceding words "civil proceedings". Civil proceedings are of many kinds and need not be confined to suits, appeals or applications which are made only in courts stricto sensu. This is made even more clear by the explicit language of Section 14 by which a civil proceeding can even be a revision which may be to a quasi-judicial tribunal under a particular statute. Whether the Principle of Section 14 would apply to an appeal filed under Section 128 Customs Act. "128. Appeals to Commissioner (Appeals).-(1) Any person aggrieved by any decision or order passed under this Act by an officer of customs lower in rank than a Commissioner of Customs may appeal to the Commissioner (Appeals) within [sixty days] from the date of the communication to him of such decision or order: [Provided that the Commissioner (Appeals) may, if he is satisfied that the appellant was prevented by sufficient cause from presenting the appeal within the aforesaid period of sixty days, allow it to be presented within a further period of thirty days.] [(1-A) The Commissioner (Appeals) may, if suff....
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....nfluenced by considerations of justice and reason. Justice and reason constitute the great general legislative intent in every piece of legislation. Consequently where the suggested construction operates harshly, ridiculously or in any other manner contrary to prevailing conceptions of justice and reason, in most instances, it would seem that the apparent or suggested meaning of the statute, was not the one intended by the law-makers. In the absence of some other indication that the harsh or ridiculous effect was actually intended by the legislature, there is little reason to believe that it represents the legislative intent." 32. This is why the principles of Section 14 were applied in J. Kumaradasan Nair v. Iric Sohan, (2009) 12 SCC 175 to a revision application filed before the High Court of Kerala. The Court held: "16. The provisions contained in Sections 5 and 14 of the Limitation Act are meant for grant of relief where a person has committed some mistake. The provisions of Sections 5 and 14 of the Limitation Act alike should, thus, be applied in a broad based manner. When sub-section (2) of Section 14 of the Limitation Act per se is not applicable, the same would ....
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....It will be well to bear in mind that an element of mistake is inherent in the invocation of Section 14. In fact, the section is intended to provide relief against the bar of limitation in cases of mistaken remedy or selection of a wrong forum. On reading Section 14 of the Act it becomes clear that the legislature has enacted the said section to exempt a certain period covered by a bona fide litigious activity. Upon the words used in the section, it is not possible to sustain the interpretation that the principle underlying the said section, namely, that the bar of limitation should not affect a person honestly doing his best to get his case tried on merits but failing because the court is unable to give him such a trial, would not be applicable to an application filed under Section 34 of the Act of 1996. The principle is clearly applicable not only to a case in which a litigant brings his application in the court, that is, a court having no jurisdiction to entertain it but also where he brings the suit or the application in the wrong court in consequence of bona fide mistake or (sic of) law or defect of procedure. Having regard to the intention of the legislature this Court is of t....
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....r an idiot, would he not be entitled to institute such proceedings after such disability has ceased, for otherwise he would be barred by the period of limitation contained in the particular statute governing his rights. This Section again is a pointer to the fact that courts always lean in favour of advancing the cause of justice where a clear case is made out for so doing. 34. However, it remains to consider whether Shri Sanghi is right in stating that Section 128 is a complete code by itself which necessarily excludes the application of Section 14 of the Limitation Act. For this proposition he relied strongly on Parson Tools which has been discussed hereinabove. As has already been stated, Parson Tools was a judgment which turned on the three features mentioned in the said case. Unlike the U.P. Sales Tax Act, there is no provision in the Customs Act which enables a party to invoke suo moto the appellate power and grant relief to a person who institutes an appeal out of time in an appropriate case. Also, Section 10 of the U.P. Sales Tax Act dealt with the filing of a revision petition after a first appeal had already been rejected, and not to a case of a first appeal as provide....
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....llant and the limitation period provided by the concerned statute continues to be the stated period and not more than the stated period. We conclude, therefore, that the principle of Section 14 which is a principle based on advancing the cause of justice would certainly apply to exclude time taken in prosecuting proceedings which are bona fide and with due diligence pursued, which ultimately end without a decision on the merits of the case. 36. Shri Sanghi also cited Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. v. Union of India, (2011) 10 SCC 292. He relied upon paragraph 14 of this judgment which reads as follows:- "14. It is a well-settled proposition of law that a fiscal legislation has to be construed strictly and one has to look merely at what is said in the relevant provision; there is nothing to be read in; nothing to be implied and there is no room for any intendment. (See Cape Brandy Syndicate v. IRC [(1921) 1 KB 64] and Ajmera Housing Corpn. v.CIT [(2010) 8 SCC 739] .)". 37. We do not see how this judgment furthers the argument of Shri Sanghi. This is only reiteration of the classic statement of law contained in the Cape Brandy Syndicate case. Further, the context of this pa....
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....the presentation of a proceedings and the disposal of that particular proceeding should be allowed under the sub-section. The time during which a party has been taking the indispensable and necessary steps preparatory to initiate the proceedings in a court should also be regarded as the time during which he has been prosecuting the civil proceeding. It is also to be borne in mind that sub-section (1) makes no reference to the pendency of the suit, appeal or other proceeding in a Court of law. The legislature had used words of general import and of widest amplitude. So, we do not find any justification for reading a restriction into that sub-section and to hold that the time during which a party was engaged in taking steps for invoking the aid of the Court falls outside the contemplation urged on behalf of the respondents, while the pendency of a proceeding in a Court could be deducted in computing the period of limitation, the time occupied in obtaining certified copies of the judgment which is an essential requisite for the filing of an appeal or revision in the higher Court has to be disregarded for purposes of S. 14. We do not think that the legislature would have conte....
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....our opinion the plaintiff has been litigating the matter in a Court which she bona fide believed to be the correct tribunal, believing, to the extent of incurring costs of an appeal against the decision that it was not the correct tribunal, for something like 10 months. Those 10 months must be taken into account in considering the period that has elapsed between the date of suit and the date when the plaint was eventually filed in the correct Court, and if this is so taken into account the time that has expired is less than a year. The limitation point, therefore, in our opinion, fails." In the case of Abdul Sattar v. Abdul Husan, AIR 1936 Cal 400, the plaintiffs had applied for execution of their decree. The judgment-debtors raised objections to the execution on the ground of adjustment of the decree. The question of adjustment was fought in appeals upto the highest Court. Ultimately it was decided against the plaintiffs by the final appellate Court. The learned Judges constituting the Division Bench held that the plaintiffs were entitled to exclude the entire period from the date of the order recording the adjustment upto the date of the final order of the highe....
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....gh a chequered career in the appeal courts. The same plaintiff/applicant now files a fresh proceeding before a court of first instance having the necessary jurisdiction. So long as the said proceeding is filed within the remaining three month period, Section 14 will apply to exclude the entire time taken starting from the ninety first day till the final appeal is ultimately dismissed. This example also goes to show that the expression "the time during which the plaintiff has been prosecuting with due diligence another civil proceeding" needs to be construed in a manner which advances the object sought to be achieved, thereby advancing the cause of justice. 42. Section 14 has been interpreted by this Court extremely liberally inasmuch as it is a provision which furthers the cause of justice. Thus, in Union of India v. West Coast Paper Mills Ltd., (2004) 3 SCC 458, this Court held: "14. ... In the submission of the learned Senior Counsel, filing of civil writ petition claiming money relief cannot be said to be a proceeding instituted in good faith and secondly, dismissal of writ petition on the ground that it was not an appropriate remedy for seeking money relief cannot b....
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....ne and not to the date on which the cause of action for such proceeding might arise in the case of appellate or revisional proceedings from original proceedings which prove to be abortive. Explanation (a) to Section 14 was only meant to clarify that the day on which a proceeding is instituted and the day on which it ends are also to be counted for the purposes of Section 14. This does not lead to the conclusion that the period from the cause of action to the institution of such proceeding should be left out. In fact, as has been noticed above, the explanation expands the scope of Section 14 by liberalizing it. Thus, under explanation (b) a person resisting an appeal is also deemed to be prosecuting a proceeding. But for explanation (b), on a literal reading of Section 14, if a person has won in the first round of litigation and an appeal is filed by his opponent, the period of such appeal would not be liable to be excluded under the Section, leading to an absurd result. That is why a plaintiff or an applicant resisting an appeal filed by a defendant shall also be deemed to prosecute a proceeding so that the time taken in the appeal can also be the subject matter of exclusion under ....
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....dural law and not of substantive law. It is a well-established proposition that such a change of law operates retrospectively and the person has to go to the new forum even if his cause of action or right of action accrued prior to the change of forum. He will have a vested right of action but not a vested right of forum. If by express words the new forum is made available only to causes of action arising after the creation of the forum, then the retrospective operation of the law is taken away. Otherwise the general rule is to make it retrospective." 46. In answering a question which arose under Section 110A of the Motor Vehicles Act, this Court held: "7....."(1) Time for the purpose of filing the application under Section 110-A did not start running before the constitution of the tribunal. Time had started running for the filing of the suit but before it had expired the forum was changed. And for the purpose of the changed forum, time could not be deemed to have started running before a remedy of going to the new forum is made available. (2) Even though by and large the law of limitation has been held to be a procedural law, there are exceptions to this princ....
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....ight of action. In view of the change of the law it was held that the application could be filed within a reasonable time after the constitution of the Tribunal; and, that the time of about four months taken by the respondent in approaching the Tribunal after its constitution, could be held to be either reasonable time or the delay of about two months could be condoned under the proviso to Section 110-A(3)." Both these judgments were referred to and followed in Union of India v. Harnam Singh, (1993) 2 SCC 162, see paragraph 12. 48. The aforesaid principle is also contained in Section 30(a) of the Limitation Act, 1963. "30. Provision for suits, etc., for which the prescribed period is shorter than the period prescribed by the Indian Limitation Act, 1908.- Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act,- (a) any suit for which the period of limitation is shorter than the period of limitation prescribed by the Indian Limitation Act, 1908, may be instituted within a period of [seven years] next after the commencement of this Act or within the period prescribed for such suit by the Indian Limitation Act, 1908, whichever period expires earlier:" 49. The reason ....
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.... of those decisions. This Court in Garikapati Veeraya v. N. Subbiah Choudhry [AIR 1957 SC 540], New India Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Shanti Misra [(1975) 2 SCC 840], Hitendra Vishnu Thakur v. State of Maharashtra [(1994) 4 SCC 602 : 1994 SCC (Cri) 1087], Maharaja Chintamani Saran Nath Shahdeo v. State of Bihar [(1999) 8 SCC 16] and Shyam Sunder v. Ram Kumar [(2001) 8 SCC 24], has elaborately discussed the scope and ambit of an amending legislation and its retrospectivity and held that every litigant has a vested right in substantive law but no such right exists in procedural law. This Court has held that the law relating to forum and limitation is procedural in nature whereas law relating to right of appeal even though remedial is substantive in nature. 26. Therefore, unless the language used plainly manifests in express terms or by necessary implication a contrary intention a statute divesting vested rights is to be construed as prospective, a statute merely procedural is to be construed as retrospective and a statute which while procedural in its character, affects vested rights adversely is to be construed as prospective." 51. This judgment was strongly relied upon by Shr....