Neutral Citation No. - 2025:AHC-LKO:47077-DB Court No. - 1 Case :- WRIT - A No. - 2000820 of 2015 Petitioner :- Udai Pal Singh And 10 Others Respondent :- Union Of India Deptt.Of Personnel Public Grievances And Pensio Counsel for Petitioner :- Vinay Misra Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.,Anurag Srivastava,Dipak Seth,Kaushik Chatterji Hon'ble Rajan Roy,J. Hon'ble Manjive Shukla,J. 1. Heard. 2. By means of this petition, the petitioners have challenged judgment and order dated 28.01.2015, passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Lucknow in Original Application No. 332/00033 of 2015. The petitioners herein preferred an Original Application No. 332/00033 of 2015 seeking the following reliefs:- "(a) That this Hon'ble Tribunal may be pleased to quash the impugned order dated 03-12-2008 so far as the same goes to grant retrospective seniority to the absorption of the private respondents on the post of assistant audit officers, contained as Annexure No. 1 to this original application. (b) That this Hon'ble Tribunal may be pleased to direct the opposite parties to bring out suitable amends in the seniority list and remove the anomalies which have resulted in downgrading the seniority level of the applicants, in the interest of justice. (c) That this Hon'ble Tribunal may be pleased to direct the opposite parties to carry out a thread bare examination of the fact that how certain incumbents (private respondents) who were absorbed upon recommendation/approval of the Union Public Service Commission by virtue of the order dated 03-12-2008, were given retrospective seniority at the detriment of the applicants, in the interest of justice. (d) That this Hon'ble Tribunal may be pleased to direct the opposite parties not to make any promotion on the post of audit officer, till the discrepancies which have crept in the gradation list are removed and a fresh gradation list of assistant audit officers is prepared in light of the recommendation of UPS.C. dated 04-11- 2008 and by ignoring the order dated 03-12-2008, in the interest of justice." 3. The Central Administrative Tribunal, Lucknow has dismissed the Original Application No. 332/00033 of 2015 on the ground that the original application was barred by limitation. The limitation for preferring an Original Application before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Lucknow constituted under the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 is provided under Section 21 of the said Act, according to which the limitation is one year which, in certain circumstances as mentioned therein, can be extended to six months. There is also a provision for condonation of delay. Section 21 reads as under :- "21. Limitation. (1) A Tribunal shall not admit an application, (a) in a case where a final order such as is mentioned in clause (a) of sub-section (2) of section 20 has been made in connection with the grievance unless the application is made, within one year from the date on which such final order has been made; (b) in a case where an appeal or representation such as is mentioned in clause (b) of sub-section (2) of section 20 has been made and a period of six months had expired thereafter without such final order having been made, within one year from the date of expiry of the said period of six months. (2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where (a) the grievance in respect of which an application is made had arisen by reason of any order made at any time during the period of three years immediately preceding the date on which the jurisdiction, powers and authority of the Tribunal becomes exercisable under this Act in respect of the matter to which such order relates; and (b) no proceedings for the redressal of such grievance had been commenced before the said date before any High Court, the application shall be entertained by the Tribunal if it is made within the period referred to in clause (a), or, as the case may be, clause (b), of sub-section (1) or within a period of six months from the said date, whichever period expires later. (3) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1) or sub- section (2), an application may be admitted after the period of one year specified in clause (a) or clause (b) of sub-section (1) or, as the case may be, the period of six months specified in sub-section (2), if the applicant satisfies the Tribunal that he had sufficient cause for not making the application within such period." 4. Apparently, the order impugned before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Lucknow was passed on 03.12.2008, that is almost seven years prior to filing of Original Application. The Tribunal has recorded a categorical finding based on the application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, 2005 filed before it alongwith the Original Application that on its bare perusal it is clear that applicants before it failed to take any cogent ground for condoning the delay. It has then referred to the decisions of Hon'ble the Supreme Court reported in (2010) 12 SCC 471; Shiba Shankar Mohapatra and Others vs. State of Orissa and Others, 2000 (2) SLJ SC 89; Ramesh Chandra Sharma v. Udham Singh Kamal and 1995 Supplementary (3) SCC 231; Secretary to Govt. of India v. Shivram Mahadu Gaikwad and accordingly, dismissed the Original Application as being barred by limitation. Learned Counsel for the petitioners sought to address us on merits of the matter without addressing us as to how the Original Application was within limitation prescribed or what were the grounds on which the delay in filing the Original Application could be condoned. We are afraid, once the Original Application has been dismissed on the ground of limitation, it is not open for us to consider the merits of the matter unless the petitioners satisfy us that the Tribunal erred in so dismissing the Original Application. Not having done so, we, see no ground for interference with the impugned judgment of the Tribunal. 5. With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is, accordingly, dismissed. (Manjive Shukla, J.) (Rajan Roy, J.) Order Date :- 12.8.2025 Arnima Digitally signed by :- ARNIMA SINGH High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench