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Uttar Pradesh Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited & Ors. v. Balbir Singh

Civil Appeal · 2021 INSC 473Decided 13 Sept 2021
Civil Appeal No. 5667 of 2021
Justice M.R. Shah · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

A labour court in Dehradun had, in 1997, ordered the reinstatement of a terminated workman with full back wages. The employer's challenge to that award was pending before the Allahabad High Court when the new State of Uttarakhand was carved out in 2000, shifting jurisdiction over the Dehradun labour court to the newly created Uttarakhand High Court. The Allahabad High Court's case was never formally transferred, and when it eventually came up for hearing in 2014, that Court allowed the employer to withdraw the petition with liberty to refile in the correct forum. The employer did so, but the Uttarakhand High Court later dismissed the fresh petition, holding that only the Allahabad Chief Justice, not a regular bench, had the power to transfer such cases, and that the fresh filing was in any case too delayed (suffering from "laches").

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the Uttarakhand High Court's reasoning was legally unsound. Even though the Allahabad Chief Justice had not formally exercised the administrative power to transfer the case under Section 35 of the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000, the Allahabad High Court bench that still had the case before it was entitled to pass a judicial order permitting withdrawal with liberty to refile before the proper court: this was not an unlawful exercise of the Chief Justice's exclusive administrative power. The Court also held there was no delay at all, since the employer had been pursuing the matter continuously since 1997. It set aside the Uttarakhand High Court's dismissal, restored the original writ petition, and directed that it be decided on its merits within six months.

Lesson Learnt

When a change in state boundaries shifts jurisdiction between High Courts, a litigant who is permitted by a court to withdraw and refile before the correct forum, even without a formal administrative transfer order first being issued, should not later be penalised for "delay," since the case was being actively pursued throughout.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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