2010-UNAT-050, Ishak
In judgment No. 2010-UNAT-050, UNAT held that the appeal was time-barred and not receivable since it was not filed within 45 calendar days of receipt of the UNDT judgment. UNAT held that UNDT had correctly concluded that it had no jurisdiction to receive the Appellant’s appeal before the JAB. UNAT dismissed the appeal and affirmed the UNDT judgment. In judgment No. 2010-UNAT-050/Corr. 1, UNAT noted that the Appellant was granted an extension of time to file an appeal to 16 February 2010 and he filed his appeal on that date. UNAT rejected the Secretary-General’s submission that the appeal was time-barred and not receivable. UNAT, however, maintained the other grounds for the rejection of the appeal. UNAT dismissed the appeal and affirmed the UNDT judgment.
UNDT judgment: The Applicant contested the decision to deny him a promotion to the P-5. UNDT found that the Applicant had not requested a further extension of the deadline of 19 December 2008 for filing the full statement of appeal. UNDT, therefore, considered that the appeal was abandoned under Article 10 of the RoP of JAB, and that it had to be removed from the list of appeals pending before JAB. UNDT held it was competent to rule on appeals submitted to JAB only if they were pending as of 1 July 2009, which was not the case in this instance. UNDT found that, as the appeal was inadmissible, the Applicant’s presence at the hearing would not have contributed to the settlement of the dispute. UNDT dismissed the application finding that it had been erroneously submitted to a tribunal lacking jurisdiction in the matter.
UNDT only has jurisdiction to hear pending matters, but not matters that had already been decided by the JAB or had been abandoned while pending a JAB hearing.