How Advocate B.K. Singh Prepares a List of Dates for an OA

Why the list of dates comes before everything else

Advocate B.K. Singh writes the list of dates before the grounds, the relief clause or the synopsis. His reason is practical. Until the events are laid out in order, with the documents next to them, nobody, the lawyer included, can say with confidence what the case is about, what the department actually decided, and whether the application is in time. The rest of the OA is built on that skeleton.

It is also the page a Tribunal member reads first. At admission, a member may have several fresh matters on the board and a few minutes for each. A clean list of dates tells the bench who you are, what was done to you, when, and what you did about it. A long narrative that buries the impugned order on page eleven does the opposite.

Form I under the CAT (Procedure) Rules has its own heads, including the facts of the case and a declaration on limitation. The list of dates does not replace them. It sits in front of them as a guide, and in most benches it is filed along with a short synopsis. Our guide on the OA paper book and its order of pages shows where it goes.

His method for list of dates preparation, in seven passes

Each pass is short. Doing them separately, rather than trying to write a finished list in one sitting, is what keeps errors out.

1. Sort every paper by date

   Before writing anything, the client's papers are put in strict date order, oldest at the bottom, with a pencil number on each. Undated papers go in a separate pile until a date can be fixed from a covering letter, a diary number or a postal receipt.

2. Fix the impugned order

   The order being challenged is identified and its date, number and issuing authority written at the top of a blank sheet. If there are two orders, such as a penalty and an appellate order, both are written down and the later one marked as the final order for limitation.

3. Work back to the root event

   From the impugned order, the chain is traced backwards: the show cause notice before it, the inquiry report before that, the charge memo, the incident. For a pay case, the fixation order, the promotion order, the date of joining. The search stops at the earliest event that the relief actually depends on.

4. Work forward to the representation trail

   Every representation, appeal, reminder and reply after the impugned order is listed with its date of submission and date of receipt. This part decides Section 20 and limitation, so the dates must come from stamps and receipts, not from the dates typed on the letters.

5. Write one line per event

   Each entry gets a date, a short sentence in neutral words, and the annexure number. 'Applicant was illegally denied MACP' becomes 'Screening committee did not recommend second MACP'. Arguments belong in the grounds.

6. Strike out what does not matter

   The draft is read with one question for each line: would the bench lose anything if this line were gone? Postings irrelevant to the dispute, training courses, family events and earlier unrelated cases usually go.

7. Cross-check against the OA paragraphs

   Once the OA is drafted, every date in the facts is compared with the list. A mismatch of even one day between the list and the paragraph invites a question at the hearing, and sometimes a doubt about everything else.

Chronology drafting from documents, not from memory

Clients often arrive with a typed chronology written from memory, and much of it is accurate. Advocate B.K. Singh still asks for the papers behind each line, because a remembered date and a documented date are often a few weeks apart, and limitation can turn on a few weeks. The rule he works by: if an event cannot be shown by a paper, mark it clearly in the draft as 'to be supported' and decide later whether it should stay.

Some events have no document in the employee's hands but are in the department's records: a DPC meeting, a screening committee's recommendation, a vigilance reference. Those can stay in the list where the department's own reply or an RTI answer will confirm them. Describe them carefully, for example 'DPC met (date as per RTI reply dated ...)'. Never guess a date and present it as fact.

Where you have only an approximate date, say so. 'In or about March 2019' is honest and acceptable. A precise but wrong date, once the department's reply exposes it, damages your credibility on the dates that matter.

A made-up list of dates, laid out the way he prefers

Reading the sample table: what each column is doing

The date column uses one format throughout: two digits for the day, two for the month, four for the year. Mixing '3rd Feb 2020' with '20.02.2020' and 'Feb-20' slows a reader down and creates doubt. The event column uses the third person, 'applicant', and neutral verbs. Notice that the line about the uncommunicated APAR states the fact without commenting on it. The comment, that an uncommunicated grading cannot be used against the employee under Dev Dutt and Sukhdev Singh, belongs in the grounds.

The annexure column ties each event to a page in the paper book. The impugned order is Annexure A-1, as most benches expect, even though it comes near the end in time. A member reading the list can turn straight to it.

The last line, 'Hence this OA', is a convention. It closes the list and tells the reader that the narrative stops there. Some lawyers add the date of filing; others leave it, since the registry stamps it. Either is fine, provided the line before it shows the final order and leaves no doubt about limitation.

Synopsis and list of dates: keeping the two apart

The synopsis and the list of dates are filed together and often confused. The synopsis is a short paragraph or two in prose: who the applicant is, what the impugned order does, and the one or two legal points that make it wrong. The list of dates is the bare sequence of events, with no argument at all. A member reads the synopsis to know what the case is about and the list to check that the story holds together.

When the two are mixed, both suffer. A synopsis crowded with dates reads like a diary. A list of dates that argues reads like grounds. The method keeps them in separate drafts and writes the synopsis last, after the list and the grounds are settled, so that it only states what the rest of the OA already proves.

One test works well. Cover the synopsis and read only the list. If a stranger can tell what went wrong and when, the list is doing its job. Then cover the list and read only the synopsis. If the stranger can tell why it matters legally, the synopsis is doing its job.

Service case documents he asks for before writing a line

Using the list to test limitation and Section 20

Once the list is done, Advocate B.K. Singh reads its last third on its own, because that is where the Tribunal will look for delay. Two questions. First, under Section 20, did the applicant use the departmental remedy available, such as an appeal or a representation, and was it decided or did six months pass without a decision? Second, under Section 21, is the OA within one year of the final order, or within one year after those six months ran out?

The list answers both at a glance if the representation trail is complete. A common problem appears here: the employee kept sending representations for years after a rejection. Repeated representations do not extend limitation, as the Supreme Court held in S.S. Rathore. If the list shows a final rejection in 2021 and five more letters after it, the honest course is to file an application for condonation of delay with the OA, not to hope the bench counts from the last letter. Our page on late filing and condonation under Section 21 explains that application.

Pay and pension claims that recur every month are treated as continuing wrongs, but arrears may be restricted. The list should show when the wrong began and when it was first raised, so that the bench can see the period at stake. For a fuller check, see his limitation check for old service claims and our guide on when the one-year clock starts.

When the finished list shows a weak case

Sometimes the list of dates tells an uncomfortable truth. The final order is three years old, nothing was sent for two years, and there is no good reason for the gap. Or the dispute rests on a single event for which there is no paper at all. Or an earlier OA on the same point was withdrawn without liberty to file again. Advocate B.K. Singh tells clients about such problems when the list reveals them, before any drafting fee is spent on grounds and relief.

That does not always mean the case is over. A continuing wrong in pay or pension can survive old dates, with arrears limited. A missing document can sometimes be obtained from the department's own file under RTI. A delay can be explained if there was illness, a pending criminal case or a genuine wait for a promised decision. But each of these needs a decision made with open eyes, and the list is where that decision starts.

Where nothing can be done, it is better to know at the start. A fresh representation in some pay matters, or a request under a newer office memorandum, may give a fresh starting point in a way that an OA on old facts cannot.

Mistakes in lists of dates that he corrects most often

• Dates of letters instead of dates of receipt. A representation typed on 1 March but submitted on 19 March should be listed on 19 March, with the receipt as the annexure.
• Opinions in the event column. 'Malicious transfer order' and 'illegal show cause' are grounds, not events. They make the list look partisan and are often skipped by the reader.
• The whole career. Every posting since 1994 when the dispute is about one penalty in 2024. Keep only the events the relief depends on.
• Missing the department's replies. Employees tend to list their own letters and forget the department's interim replies, which matter for Section 20 and sometimes show the department admitted part of the claim.
• Silence about earlier cases. An earlier OA, writ or court case on the same subject must be in the list. The bench will learn of it from the department anyway.
• Two versions of the same date. The list says 11 May and paragraph 4.9 says 15 May. Fix it before filing, because the department's counsel will notice.

How the list changes with the type of case

A discipline case has a fixed spine: incident or complaint, suspension if any, charge memo, written statement, inquiry, report, representation, penalty, appeal, appellate order. The list follows it and notes the dates on which documents were sought and refused, since those often carry the case. Group A officers' discipline files may add UPSC advice and the date a copy of it was given.

A pay or MACP case is built around the dates of entitlement: joining, completion of ten, twenty or thirty years, promotion, fixation, the date a junior got more. A pension case needs the date of retirement, the date papers were sent, the PPO date and the date the error was first raised. For older retirees, the list may need an event from thirty years ago, such as a period of casual service, and that is one of the few cases where a long reach back is justified.

A recruitment case is short and urgent: notification, last date of application, examination, result, document verification, rejection, representation. The dates of the advertisement and the closing date are often the heart of the dispute, for example on whether a category certificate was held in time. Candidates should list those two dates first in their own notes, even before the rejection.

The list of dates also shows the right bench

Which bench gets your OA depends on geography. Rule 6 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules lets you file where you are posted at the time, or where any part of the cause of action arose, and a retired employee may also file at the bench for the place he now lives in. Advocate B.K. Singh puts the applicant's present posting or residence into the list's first or last line where jurisdiction could be questioned, so the bench sees at once why the case is before it.

This matters most where the employee was transferred after the impugned order, or where the order came from headquarters in Delhi while the employee works in Lucknow or Patna. If the list shows the posting and the place each order was issued and received, the territorial question is answered without argument. Our page on preparing and filing an OA under Section 19 discusses the bench rules in more detail.

OA preparation: time and cost around the list of dates

What the client can do before the first meeting

The most useful thing you can bring is not a typed story but your papers in date order, with a one-page note listing the dates you remember for which you have no paper. That second list is valuable. It tells the lawyer where to look, and it stops a remembered date from creeping into the final list as if it were proved.

Get a copy of your service book pages if they are relevant, because joining dates, increments and leave entries there often differ from what employees recall. Our guides on getting a copy of your service book and organising your case folder show how. If you send an RTI application now, the reply may arrive before drafting is complete.

Do not rewrite your letters to the department to make the trail look neater. The list must reflect what you actually sent and when.

From the list of dates to the hearing

The list keeps working after filing. When the department's reply arrives, Advocate B.K. Singh marks on a copy of the list every date the reply accepts, disputes or adds. Disputed dates become the points to answer in the rejoinder, often with an additional document. New dates the department adds, such as a committee meeting you did not know of, are added to the working copy in a different colour.

At the final hearing, the same list, updated, becomes the first page of the short written notes. A bench that read it at admission recognises it, which saves time. Our guide on final hearing notes in two pages shows how the list fits into those notes. If you want a longer worked illustration of a full list for a service case, read our worked example of a list of dates.

What to do this week

Collect every paper connected with your dispute and put them in date order, oldest first. Find the order you want to challenge and write its date and number on a blank sheet. Then list, one line each, the events before it that matter and every letter you sent after it, with the date it was received. Mark any date you cannot support with a paper. That single sheet is the start of your OA preparation and the first thing a service lawyer will want to see.

If you would like your papers read and the list of dates prepared with you, or to hear about changes in how the benches want OAs presented, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.