KHURSHID ALAM and 2 others vs GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAB and 6 others
This matter arises from a petition for leave to appeal against the judgment of the Lahore High Court dismissing the petitioners' Intra-Court Appeal as barred by time. The core legal question is whether the time spent prosecuting a review application against a judgment can be excluded or serve as a sufficient ground for condonation of delay under section 5 of the Limitation Act when filing an Intra-Court Appeal. The Supreme Court held that leave should be granted to consider whether the pendency of the review application and subsequent proceedings constituted sufficient grounds for condonation of delay under section 5 of the Limitation Act, even if strict statutory exclusion under section 14 might not apply. The key principle laid down is that the appellate court must duly consider and apply its mind to the question of condonation of delay under section 5 of the Limitation Act in the peculiar circumstances where a review application was admitted and remained pending before the court.
- Whether the time spent in prosecuting a review application can be considered as a sufficient ground for condonation of delay under section 5 of the Limitation Act in filing an Intra-Court Appeal?
- Does the High Court fail to exercise jurisdiction vested in it by law when it dismisses an appeal as time-barred without considering the question of condonation of delay under section 5 of the Limitation Act in peculiar circumstances?
- Section 5, Limitation Act 1908
- Section 14, Limitation Act 1908
ORDER
' MUNIR A. SHEIKH, J,---Leave to appeal has been sought against the judgment, dated 31st July, 1997 of the Lahore High Court passed in Intra-Court Appeal No,139 of 1997 through which the said appeal filed by the petitioners has been dismissed as barred by time.
2. The facts giving rise to this petition shortly stated are that the petitioners filed a writ petition before the Lahore High Court which was dismissed through judgment, dated 17th November, 1996.
The petitioners filed an application seeking review of the said judgment which was admitted through order, dated 8th December, 1996 and notice issued. The review application was finally rejected through order, dated 17th March, 1997 and the case was remitted to the Superintending Engineer, Irrigation and Power Department, Sargodha for decision of the issue after giving full opportunity of hearing to all the parties concerned.
3. The petitioners filed Intra-Court Appeal No,139 of 1997 to challenge the original judgment, dated 17th November, 1996 passed in the writ petition which has been dismissed as barred by time. It was held that the time spent for the prosecution of the review application could not be excluded while computing the limitation for filing the appeal. Reliance was placed on a case reported as Cantonment Board, Rawalpindi v. Muhammad Shairf through Legal Heirs PLD 1995 SC 472.
4. Learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that in the peculiar circumstances of this case, the question of condonation of delay in filing the Intra-Court Appeal under section 5 of the Limitation Act should have been considered and decided and since no application of mind has been made to this aspect of the case, therefore, the High Court failed to exercise the jurisdiction vested in it under the law.
5. The review application was admitted by the learned Single Judge against the original judgment, dated '17th November, 1996 which remained pending till 17th Mach, 1997 on which date after hearing the parties, the same was dismissed and direction issued to the Superintending Engineer, Irrigation and Power Department, Sargodha to decide the issue after giving full opportunity of hearing to all the parties concerned, therefore, the question arose whether these were sufficient grounds for condonation of delay in filing the Intra-Court Appeal under section 5 of the Limitation Act even if no benefit under section 14 of the Limitation Act as per its own terms could be given to the petitioners.
' Leave is granted to consider this question.
6. In the meantime, interim order, dated 13th November, 1997 shall continue subject to notice for an early date.