The main legal point established in the judgment is that awareness of a court order and the timeliness of filing appeals are crucial factors in determining the admissibility of claims under the H.P. Land Revenue Act, 1954.

JUDGMENT :

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, J.

The instant petition under Article 227 of the Constitution has been filed for the grant of following relief:-

“It is, therefore, prayed that this petition may kindly be allowed and the impugned order dated 26.02.2020 (Annexure P-10) passed by Financial Commissioner (Appeals) and also the orders Annexure P-8 & P-9 passed by the authorities below may kindly be ordered to be quashed and set aside and the application (Annexure P-6) for condonation of delay in filing the appeal may kindly be allowed, the delay in filing the appeal may kindly be condoned and the appeal filed against the order (Annexure P-5) may kindly be ordered to be heard and decided on merits, in the interest of justice.”

2. Brief facts of the case are that respondent No. 1 had filed application under Section 123 of the H.P. Land Revenue Act, 1954 seeking partition of the land comprised in Khata No. 34, Khatauni No. 41 and 42, Khasra Nos. 535, 565, 566, 581, Kite-4, measuring 2-3-7 bigha situated in Mohal Khilra/28, Tehsil Sundernagar, District Mandi, before the Assistant Collector Ist Grade, Sundernagar and the same was allowed on 20.07.2015.

3. Aggrieved by the orders of partition dated 20.07.2015, the petitioners filed an appeal under Section 14 of the H.P. Land Revenue Act before the Sub Divisional Collector, Sundernagar and the same was allowed vide its orders dated 31.05.2016 and the order passed by the Assistant Collector Ist Grade was set aside and was directed to decide the partition proceedings afresh by taking into consideration the observations made by the Sub Divisional Collector in his order dated 31.05.2016.

4. Pursuant to order dated 31.05.2016, the Assistant Collector, Sundernagar decided the partition proceedings vide his order dated 11.04.2017. The petitioners again being aggrieved by the orders preferred an appeal under Section 14 of the H.P. Land Revenue Act before the Sub Divisional Collector, which was allowed vide orders dated 12.09.2018 passed in Appeal No. 41/2017.

5. During the pendency of the partition proceedings before the Assistant Collector Ist Grade, order dated 26.12.2018 was passed by this Court in Regular Second Appeal No. 353 of 2018, which had arisen out of civil litigation between the parties, this Court on the joint request of the counsel for the parties directed the Collector to finalise the partition proceedings at the earliest with further direction to Assistant Collector Ist Grade to visit the site on 29.12.2018 and submit the compliance report to this Court on or before 09.01.2019.

6. Pursuant to the order passed by this Court, the Assistant Collector Ist Grade visited the spot on 26.12.2018 and proceeded to partition the land. The petitioners preferred an appeal before the Sub Divisional Collector on 28.03.2019 against the order dated 29.12.2018. However, since there was delay of 60 days in filing of the appeal, the petitioner filed an application under Section 5 of the Limitation Act (Annexure P-6) with the appeal. The Sub Divisional Collector vide order dated 28.06.2019 dismissed the application for condonation of delay by coming to the conclusion that no ground for condondation of delay is made out and the appeal is hopelessly time barred.

7. The petitioners preferred revision petition before the Commissioner, Mandi Division against order dated 28.06.2019, however, the same was dismissed vide order dated 24.09.2019 passed in Case No. 125/2019.

8. The petitioners filed revision petition under Section 17 of the H.P. Land Revenue Act before the Financial Commissioner (Appeals), which was also dismissed vide order dated 26.02.2020 passed in revision petition No. 208/2019.

9. It was vehemently argued by Mr. Y. P. Sood, learned Advocate that the authorities below while passing the orders have failed to exercise jurisdiction vested with them in accordance with law and rather adopted a hyper te