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TMI Blog2012 (10) TMI 634X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... before the Tribunal can be made even orally and in case the Tribunal is not inclined to grant the certificate prayed for, the request can be rejected straightaway in which event the aggrieved party can approach this Court for grant of leave to file an appeal under the second part of Section 31(1) - Once such an application is filed, the appeal is treated as pending till such time the same is disposed of - appeals are dismissed reserving liberty to the appellants to take recourse to Section 31 of the Act - 3046 of 2012 - - - Dated:- 23-3-2012 - T.S. Thakur and Gyan Sudha Misra, JJ. REPRESENTED BY : S/Shri Vivek Tankha, ASG, Siddarth Dave, Aseem Chandra, Vaibhav Shreevastava, Harsh Parashar, D. Kumaran, B.V. Balram Das and Mrs. Anil Katiyar, Advocates, for the Department. S/Shri P.P. Rao, Sr. Advocate, Major K. Ramesh, Utsav Sidhu, Abhimanyu Tewari, Ms. Archana Ramesh and Dr. Kailash Chand, Advocates, for the Assessee. [Judgment per : T.S. Thakur, J.]. A common question of law as to the maintainability of an appeal before this Court against a final decision and/or order of the Armed Forces Tribunal arises for consideration in these two appeals that purport to ha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat he intends to prefer an appeal, the Tribunal may also exercise any of the powers conferred under clause (a) or clause (b), as the case may be. 31. Leave to appeal. - (1) An appeal to the Supreme Court shall lie with the leave of the Tribunal; and such leave shall not be granted unless it is certified by the Tribunal that a point of law of general public importance is involved in the decision, or it appears to the Supreme Court that the point is one which ought to be considered by that Court. (2) An application to the Tribunal for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court shall be made within a period of thirty days beginning with the date of the decision of the Tribunal and an application to the Supreme Court for leave shall be made within a period of thirty days beginning with the date on which the application for leave is refused by the Tribunal. (3) An appeal shall be treated as pending until any application for leave to appeal is disposed of and if leave to appeal is granted, until the appeal is disposed of; and an application for leave to appeal shall be treated as disposed of at the expiration of the time within which it might have been made, but it is not made within th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... or decision of the Tribunal to this Court other than those falling under Section 30(2) of the Act. The only mode to bring up the matter to this Court in appeal is either by way of certificate obtained from the Tribunal that decided the matter or by obtaining leave of this Court under Section 31 for filing an appeal depending upon whether this Court considers the point involved in the case to be one that ought to be considered by this Court. 7. An incidental question that arises is whether an application for permission to file an appeal under Section 31 can be moved directly before the Supreme Court without first approaching the Tribunal for a certificate in terms of the first part of Section 31(1) of the Act. In the ordinary course the aggrieved party could perhaps adopt one of the two routes to bring up the matter to this Court but that does not appear to be the legislative intent evident from Section 31(2) (supra). A careful reading of the section shows that it not only stipulates the period for making an application to the Tribunal for grant of leave to appeal to this Court but also stipulates the period for making an application to this Court for leave of this Court to file ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... interpretation is that the legislature does not waste words. Each word used in the enactment must be allowed to play its role howsoever significant or insignificant the same may be in achieving the legislative intent and promoting legislative object. Although it is unnecessary to refer to any decisions on the subject, we may briefly re-count some of the pronouncements of this Court in which the expression subject to has been interpreted. 9. In K.R.C.S. Balakrishna Chetty Sons Co. v. State of Madras - (1961) 2 SCR 736 this Court was interpreting Section 5 of the Madras General Sales Tax Act, 1939 in which the words subject to were used by the legislature. This Court held that the use of words subject to had reference to effectuating the intention of law and the correct meaning of the expression was conditional upon . To the same effect is the decision of this Court in South India Corporation (P) Ltd. v. The Secretary, Board of Revenue - (1964) 4 SCR 280 where this Court held that the expression subject to conveyed the idea of a provision yielding place to another provision or other provisions to which it is made subject. In State of Bihar v. Bal Mukund Sah - (2000) 4 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... l nor do we have any hesitation in holding that right of appeal under Section 30 can be exercised only in the manner and to the extent it is provided for in Section 31 to which the said right is made subject. 12. Mr. P.P. Rao, learned senior counsel appearing for the respondent in Criminal Appeal D. No. 38094 of 2011 also drew our attention to several other statutes in which an appeal is provided to the Supreme Court but where such provision is differently worded. For instance, Section 116-A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 provides for an appeal to this Court and reads as under : 116-A. Appeals to Supreme Court. - (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force, an appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court on any question (whether of law or fact) from every order made by a High Court under Section 98 or Section 99. 13. So also the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 provides for an appeal to this Court under Section 23 thereof which reads as under : 23. Appeal. - Any person, aggrieved by an order made by the National Consumer in exercise of its powers by sub-clause (i) of clause (a) of Section 21, may prefer an appeal against such ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s an elementary rule of construction that no provision of a statute should be construed in isolation but it should be construed with reference to the context and in the light of other provisions of the Statute so as, as far as possible, to make a consistent enactment of the whole statute 17. Mr. Tankha, Additional Solicitor General and Ms. Rachana Joshi Issar, counsel appearing for the appellants in the connected matters lastly argued that there may be circumstances in which urgent orders may be required to be issued in which event an application for grant of certificate before the Tribunal may prevent the aggrieved party from seeking such orders from this Court. The answer to that question lies in Section 31(3) according to which an appeal is presumed to be pending until an application for leave to appeal is disposed of and if the leave is granted until the appeal is disposed of. An application for leave to appeal is deemed to have been disposed of at the expiration of the time within which it may have been made but is not made within that time. That apart an application for grant of certificate before the Tribunal can be made even orally and in case the Tribunal is not inclin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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