Question: A government employee is dismissed from service. Subsequently, as laid down in the rules, he files an appeal before the appellate authority in his department against his dismissal order. The appellate authority takes a long period of time to decide the appeal. Now, the question is – if this employee wants to challenge this order in the court or tribunal, how would the limitation period be counted? Would the limitation period be counted from the date of the original dismissal order or from the date of the order of the appellate authority? Because if the limitation is to be counted from the dismissal order, then his challenge in court will be time-barred.
Answer: This question is no longer res integra. A 7-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court decided this issue way back in 1989.
In the case of S.S. Rathore v. State of M.P., (1989) 4 SCC 582 : AIR 1990 SC 10, the Supreme Court held that the cause of action first arises when the remedies available to the public servant under the relevant Service Rules as to redressal are disposed of.
Taking help from the statutory guidance available from the provisions of sub-sections (2) and (3) of Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act on this issue of limitation, the 7-judge bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that:
“… the cause of action shall be taken to arise not from the date of the original adverse order but on the date when the order of the higher authority where a statutory remedy is provided entertaining the appeal or representation is made and where no such order is made, though the remedy has been availed of, a six months’ period from the date of preferring of the appeal or making of the representation shall be taken to be the date when cause of action shall be taken to have first arisen. We, however, make it clear that this principle may not be applicable when the remedy availed of has not been provided by law. Repeated unsuccessful representations not provided by law are not governed by this principle.
The Supreme Court held that in every such case (i.e., in the case of government servants) only when the appeal or representation provided by law is disposed of, cause of action shall first accrue and where such order is not made, on the expiry of six months from the date when the appeal was filed or representation was made, the right to sue shall first accrue. Submission of just a memorial or representation to the head of the establishment shall not be taken into consideration in the matter of fixing limitation.
So, in your case, the limitation may start from the date of order of the appellate authority rejecting your appeal against dismissal order. Or, if the appeal was not decided within a period of 6 months from the date of filing of the appeal, then the limitation may start from the date of expiry of such 6 months’ period.
However, I may point out that if there are some different rules applicable to you, which are more beneficial to you on the issue of limitation, then you may try using those beneficial provisions. In my opinion, the above Supreme Court judgment lays down a general rule, but if your own statutory rules give you more benefit on this issue, then that more beneficial rules may apply to you.
