Can't Dismiss Appeals Solely For Late Submission Of Documents, Procedural Errors Can't Nullify One's Right To Appeal: J&K High Court

A bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal Wani emphasised that a person's right to appeal cannot be nullified simply because they did not strictly follow procedural rules.

“The object of the courts is to decide the rights of the parties and not to punish them for the mistakes which are made in the conduct of the cases. It has been also the consistent position of law that courts do not exist for the sake of the discipline but for the sake of deciding matters in controversy on merits effectually and conclusively’.

The observations came in a petition in terms of which the petitioners had invoked the supervisory jurisdiction of the court enshrined in Article 227 of the Constitution seeking setting aside of an impugned order passed by the court of Additional District Judge (Fast Track) Budgam.

The case involves a suit for injunction filed by the plaintiff respondent against the defendants petitioners. The trial court had granted a temporary injunction in favor of the plaintiff, which was confirmed on 19.9.2022. The petitioners then filed a Miscellaneous Appeal before the appellate court, which initially entertained the appeal despite the absence of a certified copy of the impugned order.

However, the appellate court dismissed the appeal holding that the certified copy of the impugned order was not filed within the specified time.

The appellants contended that their substantive right of appeal, as enshrined in the law, should not be nullified due to this procedural default.

Delving into the nuances of the law on the issue, Justice Wani asserted that an appeal is not explicitly defined in CPC but generally refers to an application to a higher authority to reconsider a decision of a lower authority or a subordinate court. The CPC confers the right of appeal through specific provisions, and the right to file an appeal is not inherent but a statutory right.

The court cited various precedents to emphasize that an appeal is a continuation of the suit or original proceeding. The procedural rules should not be used to deny substantive rights of appeal to litigants.

To address the argument that the appeal was dismissed on account of non-filing of the certified copy of the order appealed against and whether on account of such failure the said right of appeal being a substantive right can be lost by a party or else denied thereof by an appellate court the bench referenced Dajisaheb Mane and others versus Shankar Rao Vithal reported in AIR 1959 observed,

“…The statutory substantive right of appeal vested in a party cannot remain illusory or nugatory by giving undue importance to procedural law and that the breach of the procedural rule cannot be said to take away a litigants right to file appeal when a statute confers such a right specifically”.

Concluding that the appellate court's dismissal of the appellants' appeal solely due to the late submission of a certified copy of the order had resulted in a miscarriage of justice the court deemed the impugned order legally unsustainable and set it aside.

Accordingly, the appellants' appeal was reinstated and the appellate court was directed to decide the case on its merits.

Case Title: Ghulam Din Bhat and another Vs Mst Jana

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (JKL) 262

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