' ZAFARULLAH KHAN KHAKWANI, J.---This Constitutional Petition is directed against the order dated 16.12.2013 passed by the learned Punjab Labour Court No, 8, Bahawalpur whereby Grievance Petition of respondent No, 2 was accepted and he was directed to be re-instated into service.
2. Brief but relevant facts for adjudication of this case are that Riaz Ahmad, respondent No, 2 was employed by the petitioner/Combined Military Hospital, Bahawalpur as Sweeper on 26.5.2001. Later on he was re-designated/adjusted by the petitioner against the post of Mali on 23.3.2008. It so happened that respondent No, 2 absented from duty and as such his services were terminated statedly on 10.11.2012/ 18.4.2013. He filed Grievance Petition under the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 (hereinafter to be called the PIRA, 2010) before the Punjab Labour Court No, 8, Bahawalpur.
Said petition was entertained and notice was issued to the respondent i.e, Combined Military Hospital, Bahawalpur/petitioner herein. Order-sheet of learned Labour Court evinces that the respondent (petitioner herein) refused to accept notice and, therefore, was proceeded against ex- parte. After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner, the learned Labour Court accepted the grievance petition and resultantly, reinstated the respondent into service as stated above. Hence this petition.
3. At the very outset learned counsel for the petitioner, on legal plane, forcefully objected to the competence of the proceedings before the Punjab Labour Court No, 8, Bahawalpur by arguing that the petitioner/ Combined Military Hospital, Bahawalpur is one of the base hospitals of Pakistan Armed Forces situated in various Cantonments throughout the country, therefore, in view of Section 1(2) of the PIRA, 2010, the Punjab Labour Court No, 8, Bahawalpur has no jurisdiction to entertain the matters relating to the petitioner. He supplemented his contention by arguing that the Combined Military Hospitals are under the direct control of Pakistan Army Medical Corps and thus do not fall within the definition of 'Industry' or 'Establishment' so as to bring the matter under the jurisdiction of Punjab Labour Court as defined in Section 1(3) of the PIRA, 2010 therefore the impugned order is passed without jurisdiction. He also argued that the petitioner-hospital is governed and is under the Administrative Control of the Pakistan Army and is thus excluded from the operation of the PIRA, 2010 as provided in clause (a) of sub-section (3) of Section 1, so proceedings before the learned Punjab Labour Court No, 8, Bahawalpur were coram non judice. On factual plane, learned counsel for the petitioner drew attention of the Court to the personal record of the respondent by contending that the respondent was a habitual offender and his personal record would show that he was not serious in doing his job who not only used to remain absent from duty but was also found involved in theft of goods etc. And as such was issued innumerable show-cause notices/warnings as per law but he did not mend himself and thus the petitioner was right to terminate services of the respondent. Further contends that right of departmental appeal was available to the respondent against the order of his termination from service as such Grievance Petition was not competent and that in any case the respondent was terminated from service after fulfilling all formalities as such the impugned order was not tenable in the eyes of law.
4. Conversely, to meet with preliminary objection of learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel for respondent No, 2 vehemently contended that the respondent was not an army personnel rather he was a civil employee appointed as Sweeper and then adjusted as Mali and thus was a workman within the definition of Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010, so the Punjab Labour Court No, 8, Bahawalpur was fully competent to take cognizance of the matter and thus the grievance petition was rightly entertained by respondent No,
1. While defending the impugned order dated 16.12.2013 learned counsel states that respondent No, 1 passed a well speaking order which is full of reasoning. Learned counsel further argued that the respondent was condemned unheard; no show-cause notice of any kind was issued to him and he was terminated from service through verbal order passed by the petitioner which was not backed by any law and thus the same was rightly set aside by the learned Punjab Labour Court, Bahawalpur. Lastly argued that the petitioner has an alternative remedy of filing an appeal before the Punjab Labour Appellate Tribunal under Section 47(3) of the Act as such this Constitutional petition was not maintainable.
' Addressing to the last limb of the arguments of learned counsel for the ,espondent, learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that it is case of the petitioner that the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 is not applicable to their case, as such there was no occasion to file an appeal before the learned Labour Appellate Tribunal which is creation of the Act itself as such this Constitutional Petition has been filed.
5. Arguments pro and contra have been heard and record has been perused.
6. Instead of entering into the realm of factual controversy the pivotal point to be resolved first is whether any civil employee of Combined Military Hospital is a workman within the definition of Clause (xxxi) of Section 2 of the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 so as to bring provisions of the said Act into operation; whether provisions of Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 are applicable in the case of the petitioner/Combined Military Hospital which is run and governed under the direct supervision of the Pakistan Army and is exempted from operation of this Act in view of Section 1(3)
(a); and whether the Punjab Labour Court having jurisdiction to the extent of Punjab can also take cognizance of the matters relating to trans-provincial departments. After having answered all these quarries in favour of the respondent, one should proceed further to decide the case on merits.
7. To better appreciate the position, relevant provisions of the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 may be referred first: ' Preamble of the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 shows that this Act has been promulgated to regulate formation of trade unions and trade union activities, relations between employers and workmen and the avoidance and settlement of any differences or disputes arising between them and ancillary matters.
' Section 1(1) of the Act provides that this Act may be cited as the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010.
' Section 1(2) stretches territorial jurisdiction of the Act to the whole of Punjab.
' Section 1(3) not only provides application of the Act to certain persons but also exempts certain persons/entities from operation of this Act. It runs as follow:- "1. (3) It shall apply to all persons employed in any establishment or industry, but shall not apply to any person employed:---
(a) in the Police or any of the Defence Services of Pakistan or any services or installations exclusively connected with or incidental to the Armed Forces of Pakistan including an ordnance factory maintained by the Federal Government; (b)
(c) etc.
8. A combined study of the above-quoted/referred provisions of law would make it crystal clear that first of all this Act is applicable only to the persons employed in any "establishment" or "industry" Sec. 1(3), and secondly that the said establishment or industry should be located only within the Province of Punjab and not beyond that, Sec. 1(2). Clause (a) of Section 1(3) of the Act quoted above clearly exempts the persons employed in Police, Defence Services of Pakistan and even the persons employed in any services or installations exclusively connected with or incidental to the Armed Forces of Pakistan. The question is whether the petitioner/ Combined Military Hospital is not an installation exclusively connected with or incidental to the Armed Forces of Pakistan for its service and comes within the definition of establishment or industry and thus provisions of the Punjab Industrial Relations Act, 2010 are applicable to it.
9. The Pakistan Army was raised to defend Pakistan against external aggression or threat of war, and, subject to law, act in aid of civil power when called upon to do so, can be broken down in following two ways: ' OPERATIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE.
' OPERATIONALLY the Pakistan Army is divided in eleven Corps.
' A Corps usually consists of two or more Divisions and is commanded by Lt. General.
A Division is commanded by a Major General and usually comprises more than three Brigades.
A Brigade is under the Command of Brigadier and comprises three or more Battalions.
A Battalion is commanded by Lt. Colonel.
' ADMINISTRATIVELY the Pakistan Army is divided into two main Branches:--- ' ARMS AND SERVICES. Arms consists of Infantry, Armour, Artillery and Army Air Defence.
' Services consists of eight Corps, namely,- Army Ordnance Corps (AOC), Corps of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering (EME)
Army Service Corps. (ASC), Army Education Corps (AEC), Corps of Military Police (CMP), Remount, Veterinary and Farming Corps (RV&FC), Army Medical Corps and Corps of Military Intelligence (CMI).
10. A brief history of the Combined Military Hospitals may also be stated here which to some extent is also relevant to better understand the constitution of Combined Military Hospitals in Pakistan.
' During the British Era, the Royal Indian Army troops depended for their medical treatment entirely on their regimental hospitals. However, in 1918 Station Hospitals were sanctioned for the Indian troops. The Indian Hospital Corps (IHC) initially was divided into 10 Division Companies correspondent to 10 existing Military Divisions, in India and Burma. They were located at Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Quetta, Mhow, Poona, Meerut, Lucknow, Secunderabad and Rangoon. Later on in 1932 the whole corps was re-organized on command basis five companies. After the World War II it was felt necessitated and thus a homogeneous corps by amalgamating Indian Medical Services, Indian Medical Department and Indian Hospital Corps was created which was named as Indian Army Medical Corps (IAMC) in 1943. The medical institutions of the IAMC were concentrated in the 2017 NATIONAL LAW REPORTER [REVENUE] Volume XL Citation: NLR 2017 Revenue