Athar Minallah, C.J. Through this consolidated judgment, the Court will decide the instant petition alongwith W.P. No.3338/2022 titled "IFFCO Pakistan Workers Union v. M/o IFFCO Pakistan (Private)
Limited & 3 others" and W.P. No.3351/2022 titled "Labour Employees Union IFFCO v. M/s IFFCO Pakistan (Private) Limited & 3 others".
2. The respondent i.e. M/s IFFCO (Private) Limited (hereinafter referred to as the "respondent Company") is a juridical person and engaged in the business of manufacturing/production of cooking oil. The manufacturing unit of the respondent Company is situated at Port Qasim, Karachi.
The Registrar of the trade unions had registered three trade unions i.e. Labour Employees Union IFFCO, IFCO Pakistan Workers Union and IFFCO Insaf Mehnatkash Union on 29-10-2015, 29-10-2015 and 19-05-2017, respectively. The respondent Company had filed applications for cancellation of the registrations granted in favour of the unions. The learned Single Bench of the National Industrial Relations Commission (hereinafter referred to as the "Commission") dismissed the applications.
The appeals preferred by the Company were allowed by the learned Full Bench vide judgment, dated 22-08-2022.
3. The question determined by the learned Full Bench of the Commission was; whether the respondent Company was a trans-provincial establishment having branches in more than one Province. The learned Full Bench of the Commission, after interpreting the expression ""branch" has concluded that the respondent Company was not covered under the expression ""trans-provincial" establishment. The representative of the petitioner Union has been heard. He was not able to point out any legal infirmity requiring interference by this Court with the well-reasoned judgment rendered by the learned Full Bench of the Commission. The provisions of the Industrial Relations Act, 2012 have been correctly interpreted. The determination of facts regarding existence of `branches' in other Provinces also does not suffer from any misreading or non-reading. It is settled law that factual controversies cannot be resolved while exercising jurisdiction under Article 199 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973. Reliance is placed on the cases titled "Dr. M. A. Haseeb Khan etc v. Sikandar Shaheen and 9 others" [PLD 1980 SC 139], "Ghulam Muhammad and another v. Mst. Noor Bibi and 5 others", [1980 SCMR 933],"Khawaja Muhammad Akhtar v. President, Cantonment Board, Sialkot Cantt Election Authority (Tribunal) and another [1981 SCMR 291], "Benedict F.D' Souza v. Karachi Building Control Authority & 3 others", [1989 SCMR 918], "Federation Of Pakistan and 2 others v. Major (Retd) Muhammad Sabir Khan",[PLD 1991 SC 476],"Muhammad Younis Khan and 12 others v. Government of N.W.F.P. through Secretary, Forest and Agriculture, Peshawar and others" [1993 SCMR 618], "Shah Wali and other v. Ferozuddin and others' [2000 SCMR 718], "Collector of Customs and others v.
Messrs Fatima Enterprises Ltd. and others' [2012 SCMR 416], and "Sher Afgan Khan Niaz v. Ali S. Habib and others' [2011 SCMR 1813]. The well-reasoned impugned judgment rendered by the learned Full Bench of the Commission does not require interference.
4. For the above reasons, the petitions are meritless and thus accordingly dismissed.