Srinagar: ‘Revision petitions under Land Revenue Act are time barred”, the High Court said Monday while holding “bad” some of the judgments rendered by the court’s single bench.
Sending away a bunch of petitions, the bench of Justices Ali Mohammad Magrey and Mohammad Akram Chowdhary held as “bad” some of the judgments rendered by the court’s single bench. The former benches held a contrary view.
“We have come to a definite conclusion that a revision arising out of the provisions of the Land Revenue Act under Section 15 thereof, initiated at the instance of an aggrieved party, would attract the law of limitation,” the division bench said.
“The judgments of the single benches, which hold to the contrary, expressing conflicting view, would continue to baffle the revenue authorities and the legal practitioners,” it said further.
It held that those judgments, obviously, do not lay down a good law and, therefore, need to be done away with, and are, declared so, it said.
The division bench said that sub-section (1) of Section 15, providing for power to revise orders, uses the phrase ‘at any time’, meaning at any time, without reference to limitation while Sub-section (2) of Section 12 provides that such provisions of Limitation Act as apply to applications for revision etc. in civil suits shall also apply to revisions etc. under the Act.
“Obviously, Sub-section (1) refers to the suo moto exercise of power of revision by the Financial Commissioner and Subsection (2) of Section 12 refers to the revisions initiated under Section 15 of the Act at the instance of an aggrieved party,” the court said.
It added that the provision of the law in Sub-section (2) of Section 12 of the Land Revenue Act, thus, expressly, clearly and unambiguously provides limitation period for revision applications under the Act, as being the same as provided for revisions under the Limitation Act in civil suits.
The court said that it may also be equally relevant to mention here that, of course, there is no limitation period as such prescribed under the Limitation Act for revision applications in civil suits.
It has been consistently held by the High Court that a revision petition shall be filed within the same period as is prescribed for filing an appeal against a decree or order, usually a 90 day period.
