The Kerala High Court has set aside an order of the Employees Provident Fund Appellate Tribunal that had dismissed an appeal for default, however, subject to the condition that the petitioner shall plant ten trees in the coming monsoon as costs in restoring the appeal.
A bench of Justice Amit Rawal while issuing such costs, further directed the Tribunal to decide the appeal in accordance with law, as expeditiously as possible, within a period of four months from the date of receipt of the judgment.
Advocate R.Bindu appeared for the petitioner, and Senior Advocate N.N. Sugunapalan appeared for the respondent.
The petitioner had preferred an appeal before the Tribunal, against an order of the assessing authority dated April 11, 2007.
However, the Tribunal dismissed the appeal for default as no one appeared on behalf of the appellant through an order dated April 7, 2010. It had noted,
“The date of hearing was notified to the parties for hearing on admission of appeal. However, no one appeared on behalf of the appellant. It appears that the appellant is not interested to pursue the appeal. Hence ordered, the appeal is dismissed for default. Copy of order be sent to the parties and the file be consigned to record room.”
The petitioner thus approached the High Court stating that he did not get any chance to appear before the Appellate Tribunal.
The bench accordingly, allowed the writ petition.
Cause Title: Dr. Aravindan, Proprietor, M/S.Aravind Medical Centre v. Assistant Provident Fund Commissioner [Neutral Citation No.: 2023:KER:30170]
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