Supreme Court rules appeals must be filed on first day after court holidays

ISLAMABAD, Oct 15 (APP): The Supreme Court has ruled that where the limitation period for filing an appeal expires during court holidays, the appellant must file the appeal on the first day the court reopens to avail the benefit under Section 4 of the Limitation Act, 1908.

The court observed that an appellant who fails to file an appeal on the first working day after the holidays, without showing sufficient cause for the delay, cannot claim the benefit of the statutory provision.

The observations were made while deciding two civil appeals concerning land ownership. Justice Aqeel Ahmed Abbasi authored the judgment on behalf of a bench headed by Chief Justice Yahya Afridi.

The court held that the Lahore High Court’s judgment dated October 27, 2015, was legally and factually unsustainable due to an error in determining the limitation period for filing the appeals.

According to the judgment, the civil court had accepted the applicants’ objections on July 3, 1995. The applicants claimed to be the genuine purchasers of the disputed land. Under Article 152 of the Limitation Act, 1908, the period prescribed for filing an appeal against the order was 30 days.

The appellants applied for certified copies of the relevant order on July 5, 1995, which were provided on September 4, 1995. Civil courts remained closed for summer vacations from August 1 to September 9, 1995. Since September 10 fell on a Sunday, the courts reopened on September 11.

However, the appellants filed their appeals on September 12 and 13, respectively, instead of the first day of reopening.

The Supreme Court held that in the absence of a reasonable explanation for the delay, the appellants could not benefit from Section 4 of the Limitation Act, which provides relief where the limitation period expires during court holidays.

The judgment clarified that Article 12(5) of the Act allows the time spent obtaining a certified copy to be excluded when calculating the limitation period. However, the decisive issue in the present cases was whether the appeals had been filed on the first day the courts reopened after the holidays.

The court observed that the Lahore High Court had focused on Article 12(5) without properly examining the application of Section 4 and the specific facts of the cases.

Consequently, the Supreme Court allowed both civil appeals, set aside the Lahore High Court’s judgments and restored the orders passed by the Additional District Judge, Multan, on December 15 and 16, 2000.