ABID JAN vs MINISTRY OF DEFENCE through Secretary, Islamabad S — 2023 SCMR 1451 SUPREME-COURT

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ABID JAN VS MINISTRY OF DEFENCE through Secretary, Islamabad S. 4---Constitution of Pakistan, Arts. 199 & 212---Constitutional petition filed by the civil servant before the High Court instead of approaching the Federal Service Tribunal (FST)---High Court instead of dismissing or non-suiting the petitioner on the question of jurisdiction, observed that the writ petition should be treated as a Service Appeal and remitted it to the FST for its disposal in accordance with law---High Court directed the Office to retain a copy of the writ petition and send the original memo of the petition along with its annexures to the FST at the earliest possible date---Federal Service Tribunal (FST) dismissed the appeal on the ground of limitation rather than deciding the appeal on merits---Legality---High Court's purpose of sending the original memo of petition to the FST was to entertain and register it as a Service Appeal rather than subpoenaing the petitioner (civil servant) to submit any fresh or amended memo of appeal---When the original writ was directed to be transmitted to the FST by the High Court, then it was neither within the dominion of the petitioner to present the fresh memo of appeal by himself, nor was he obligated to submit a fresh memo of appeal which would otherwise have become time barred when, in order to save the lis from the rigors of limitation, the writ petition was converted into an appeal---Indeed, the matter of transmitting the memo of the writ petition after its conversion to the FST was, in all fairness, a matter between the Office of the High Court and FST---When the writ petition was treated as a Service Appeal and transmitted to the FST, then non-suiting the petitioner on the ground of limitation was not justified and the proper course was to issue notice to the respondent and, after providing ample opportunity of hearing to the parties, the Service Appeal should have been decided on merits as opposed to a technical knock-out---Petition for leave to appeal was converted into an appeal and allowed, impugned judgment of the Federal Service Tribunal was set aside and the matter was remanded back to decide the appeal afresh after providing a proper opportunity of hearing to both the parties.

ABID JAN vs MINISTRY OF DEFENCE through Secretary, Islamabad S — 2023 SCMR 1451 SUPREME-COURT

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