Supreme Court: The bench of Ashok Bhushan and KM Joseph, JJ decided some important questions dealing with the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Act, 1959 and held that the Commissioner, while hearing the appeal under Section 69 of Act, 1959, is not a Court. It said,
“When an appeal is provided against the order of the Commissioner under Section 69 to the Court which is defined under Section 6(7), there is no question of treating the Commissioner as a Court under the statutory scheme of Act, 1959.”
The Court also held that the applicability of Section 29(2) of the Limitation Act is with regard to different limitations prescribed for any suit, appeal or application when to be filed in a Court. It further held,
“Section 29(2) cannot be pressed in service with regard to filing of suits, appeals and applications before the statutory authorities and tribunals provided in a special or local law. The Commissione while hearing of the appeal under Section 69 of the Act, 1959 is not entitled to condone the delay in filing appeal, since, provision of Section 5 shall not be attracted by strength of Section 29(2) of the Act.”
On the question whether the statutory scheme of Act 1959 indicate that Section 5 of Limitation Act is applicable to proceedings before its authorities, the Court said that There is no other provision in the scheme from which it can be inferred that Act, 1959 intended applicability of Section 5 of the Limitation Act to proceedings of appeal before the Commission.
[Ganesan v. Commissioner, Tamil Nadu Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Board, 2019 SCC OnLine SC 651, decided on 03.05.2019]
