Kawaljit Singh Walia vs Chandigarh Administration and Others

Ajay Kumar Mittal, J.

C.M. No. 3893 of 2012

Written statement filed on behalf of behalf of respondents No.7 along with the application is taken on record subject to all just exceptions. Office to tag the same at appropriate place.

C.M. application stands disposed of.

CWP No. 11742 of 2011 (O & M)

The petitioner has approached this Court by way of present petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India seeking a writ of certiorari for quashing the impugned order dated 7th June, 2011 (Annexure P-19) passed by respondent No. 2-Registering and Licensing Authority, U.T., Chandigarh. The said order is passed u/s 55 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (for short ''the Act'').

In the reply filed by respondent No. 6, a preliminary objection has been taken that an order passed u/s 55 of the Act, is appealable u/s 57 thereof.

Arguments have been heard. Learned counsel for the petitioner has referred to enquiry report which is in his favour whereas the other side has referred to the report of FSL, which has been given in favour of respondent No. 6. Under the circumstances, there are various disputed questions of fact which arises in this petition. At this stage, it would be appropriate to reproduce Section 57 of the Act which reads as under:

Section 57: Appeals.-(i) Any person aggrieved by an order of the registering authority under Sections 41, 42, 43, 45, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 52, 53, 55 or 56 may, within thirty days of the date on which he has received notice of such order, appeal against the order to the prescribed authority.

ii) The appellate authority shall give notice of the appeal to the original authority and after giving any opportunity to the original authority and the appellant to be heard in the appeal pass such order as it think fit.

In view of the above, since the disputed questions of facts are involved herein, the present petition is disposed of with liberty to the petitioner to take recourse to the alternative remedy of appeal available to him. Learned counsel for the respondents state that in case an appeal is filed before the appellate authority within a period of thirty days from today, then, no question with regard to its limitation shall be raised. Accordingly, the writ petition is disposed of by observing that in case the petitioner files an appeal before the appellate authority within a period of thirty days from today, the same shall be adjudicated by the appellate authority on merits without going into the question of limitation.