' This appeal by the Management is directed against a decision of 3rd Labour Court, given on 26th February, 1980, condoning the delay in, the filing of the grievance petition by the respondent. The condonation has been made on the basis of the judgment of this Tribunal in the case of Liberty Mills v. Mohd. Zaman and others, decided on 5th November, 1979. The impugned order itself has been passed on remand of the case to the learned Labour Court by the consolidated order of my learned predecessor, dated 2nd August 1977, by which it had decided 9 appeals, remanding all of them to the concerned Labour Courts. The concluding para. Of the judgment of my learned predecessor reads as follows :- "In the circumstances I allow the appeals and set aside the impugned orders passed by the Labour Courts and remand the cases to the Labour Courts concerned for disposal of the cases on the basis of their finding with regard to the question of the condonation of delay. The aggrieved parties shall be entitled to file appeals raising all the questions on facts as well as law including the question of the condonation of delay."
2. A bare perusal of the above paragraph makes it clear that the previous order of the Labour Court, against which appeal was preferred to the Tribunal had been wholly set aside, and the case was remanded to the learned Labour Court for disposal on the basis of its finding with regard to the question of the condonation of delay. In other words, the learned Labour Court was required not only to give a finding with regard to the question of condonation of delay, but to give a fresh decision on the merits of the case based on that finding. This has been made further clear from the concluding sentence of the judgment of my learned predecessor, by which it was specifically stated that the aggrieved party would be entitled to file appeals raising all the questions on facts as well as law including the question of condonation of delay. The learned Labour Court has given its finding only on the question of the condonation of delay but has failed to give its findings on the merits of the case. Since earlier orders of the learned Labour Court had been wholly set aside, they are no longer in existence and, therefore, fresh findings on the merits of the case, based on the finding on the question of condonation of delay, were required to be given by the learned Labour Court. Since the learned Labour Court has failed to do so, I have no alternative but to remand the case to it for giving a finding on the merits of the case, after giving an opportunity of hearing to both the parties concerned. As the case has unfortunately been lingering on in the Labour Court, for one reason or the other, since the past 5 years, the Labour Court is directed to dispose of this case on top priority basis and if possible within one month from the date of this order.