If the administrative appeal petition names no committee or names the wrong one, which committee must the respondent agency send its reply to?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the petition the respondent received or obtained, checking what committee is marked on it, the date it was received or obtained and under which referenced procedure, any notice that the applicant withdrew the appeal, and the reply the respondent sent with any covering note.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading reads the main clause of the first paragraph together with the fifth: where the respondent receives the petition under the referenced receipt provision, and the applicant has not withdrawn the appeal, the respondent must send the petition and its reply to a committee within the period the provision sets; the fifth paragraph keeps this duty even where no committee is marked on the petition or the wrong one is, so the papers must go to the committee with proper authority.
Another reading notes two limits: where the petition was obtained under the referenced transmittal provision rather than received, only the reply goes to the committee, since the petition itself is named only for the receipt cases; and the fifth paragraph speaks of the committee with proper authority without saying how a respondent shows which committee that is when the marking is absent or wrong.
Your judgment
Where the petition carries no committee marking, what in the file would show which committee holds proper authority over the disposition challenged?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change where the respondent must send its papers, or if a decision clarifies how the competence of a committee is shown when the petition is marked wrongly or not at all.