Pakistan Case Law
2002 SCMR 1303

RAHIM JAN vs SECURITIES EXCHANGE COMMISSION OF PAKISTAN and others

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Citation2002 SCMR 1303
CourtSupreme Court of Pakistan
Case No.Civil Petition No, 3978-L of 2001
Date2001-02-27
Judge(s)Munir A. Sheikh, Tanvir Ahmed Khan and Faqir Muhammad Khokhar
Authored byMunir A. Sheikh
ResultPetition dismissed
AI Summary — generated from this judgment; read the full text below and verify before relying on it.

This petition for leave to appeal is directed against the judgment of the High Court whereby the appellant's appeal filed under section 34 of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997, against the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan dated 30-5-2001, was dismissed as barred by time. The core legal question before the Court was whether the delay in filing the statutory appeal before the High Court could be condoned under section 5 of the Limitation Act, 1908, considering the applicability of section 29 of the said Act. The Supreme Court held that the High Court rightly dismissed the appeal as time-barred, noting that section 5 of the Limitation Act was not attracted by virtue of section 29, and further observed that the appellant failed to provide any valid justification or explanation for the delay in filing the appeal within the prescribed period of limitation. The petition was consequently dismissed and leave to appeal refused.

Questions settled in this judgment
  • Whether section 5 of the Limitation Act is attracted to an appeal filed under section 34 of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997?
  • Does the dismissal of an appeal as time-barred by the High Court suffer from any legal infirmity when no sufficient cause for delay is shown?
Laws & provisions referred
  • Section 34, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997
  • Section 29, Limitation Act, 1908
  • Section 5, Limitation Act, 1908
limitationcondonation of delaystatutory appealSecurities and Exchange Commissiontime-barred appealleave to appeal

' MUNIR A. SHEIKH, J.----The appeal filed on 21-9-2001 by the petitioner before the High Court under section.. 34 of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan Act, 1997, against the order of the Commission dated 30-5-2001 has been dismissed through the impugned judgment dated 29- 10-2001 by the said Court as barred by time. It has been held that by virtue of section 29 of the Limitation Act, section 5 of the said Act was not attracted to the said appeal for the purpose of condonation of delay.

2. We have heard learned counsel for the petitioner and find that against the order, dated 30-5- 2001 of the Commission, the petitioner was obliged to file appeal within 60 days but instead of doing that, he filed Constitutional petition before the High Court on 20-9-2001 which was withdrawn on the next day i.e, 21-9-2001 and thereafter the appeal before the High Court was filed.

3. We have examined the application made by the petitioner before the High Court for condonation of delay and find that he himself had admitted that he had the knowledge of the date having been fixed by the Commission in the case as 30-5-2001 and even if he was not able to appear on the said date, nothing was said in the application as to what prevented him from filing the appeal within period of limitation before the High Court.

4. The view taken by the Lahore High Court in the impugned judgment that the appeal was barred by time does not suffer from any legal infirmity, therefore, this petition has no merits which is accordingly dismissed and leave refused.

Cited by 7 cases

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