Order No. 6 date: 26-11-2018

Sri Shyamal Gupta, Member

Record is put up today for passing order in respect of the delay condition petition of the Appellants.

By such petition, it is submitted by the Appellants that post pronouncement of the impugned order on 14-06-2017, it obtained certified copy of the same on the very next day and thereafter forwarded the same to the Legal Department of the Appellants.  Subsequently, by a letter dated 19-09-2017, the matter was entrusted to the concerned Ld. Advocate for doing the needful.  After following due official procedure in the matter, this Appeal was filed on 16-01-2018.

It appears that on receipt of the certified copy of the impugned order along with other documents from the concerned Ld. Advocate, who forwarded the same along with his suggestions on 17-06-2017, the Legal Department of the Appellants asked its panel Advocate to do the needful on 19-09-2017, i.e., after more than 3 months.  No explanation whatsoever is provided from the side of the Appellant as to why it took such prolonged time to frame up its mind to move an Appeal.  Evidently, there was clear lethargy in the decision making process on the part of the concerned officials of the Appellants. 

Even after the case was handed over to the Ld. Advocate, it took nearly 4 months to finalize the Memo of Appeal and move this Appeal – another clear instance of lackadaisical approach on the part of the officials concerned.

It is the settled position of law that every single day delay must be properly explained to justify delayed filing of an Appeal and in this case, the Appellants have not made any effort to justify such huge delay.  In our considered opinion, therefore, they deserve no relief in the matter.

That apart, on going through the available documents on record, including the impugned order, we found no infirmity with the same.  Notwithstanding the Appellants disputed maintainability of the case citing Sec. 100 of the Railways Act, 1989, the die in this regard has been cast by the Hon’ble National Commission in the matter of G.M., South Central Railway vs R.V. Kumar & Anr. reported in 2005 CTJ 862 (CP) (NCDRC). To call a spade a spade, the Appeal is bereft of any merit.

For all these reasons, we deem it wise and proper to reject the petition.  Consequent thereof, the Appeal stands dismissed being barred by limitation.