1. SHAFIUR RAHMAN, J.--Leave to appeal was granted to the Canteen Stores Department Employees'
2. Union, Punjab and Sarhad to examine whether the view taken by the Lahore High Court in its judgment dated 9th March 1977 that employment in the Canteen Stores Department is a service connected with the defence or with the Armed Forces and hence excluded under section 1(3) of the Industrial Relations Ordinance from the purview of that Ordinance, was correct and not at variance with the view taken by the other High Courts.
3. To get the same point of law examined Canteen Stores Department Employees Welfare Union Karachi sought leave to appeal against the judgment of the Karachi High Court dated 15-11-1976 wherein also the service in the Canteen Stores Department was held to be service excluded from the operation of the Industrial Relations Ordinance under section 1(3) thereof.
4. Canteen Stores Department popularly known as C. S. D. (hereinafter referred to as C. S. D.) had a union of its employees known as C. S. D. Employees' Union, Punjab and Sarhad and had applied for registration under the Industrial Relations Ordinance on 12-10-1976. The National Industrial Relations Commission by its letter dated 29th October 1976 informed the General Secretary of the appellant Union that their Union had been registered and its registration certificate bearing No. 6/76 was being forwarded. The Managing Director of the C. S. D., respondent No. 2, on coming to know of it filed an appeal against the grant of registration certificate to the appellant. While the appeal of respondent No. 2 was pending in the Labour Court, he invoked the constitutional jurisdiction of the High Court and challenged the action of the Industrial Relations Commission of registering the appellants union. The grounds taken were that C. S. D. Was an Organization which employed persons in connection with the affairs of the Defence or the Armed Forces and rendered service to the Armed Services and hence stood excluded from the purview of Industrial Relations Ordinance under section 1(3).
5. The High Court of Lahore after examining the case of the parties and the precedent-law on the subject held as follows - "It is the duty of the Defence Department to supply to their personnel the standard quality articles of the daily use necessary for their health and efficiency. These articles must also be supplied at reasonable rates and at convenient commercial places. Further the functions of the petitioner to gather know-how and experience so as to form the basis of an efficient Canteen Organization for war, for troops located in operational areas certainly connects it with the Defence Department indispensably. In that view of the matter the provisions of section 1(3) would place the petitioner out of the operational ambit of the Industrial Relations Ordinance."
6. The order of the Industrial Relations Commission, registering the appellants union was declared to be without lawful authority and hence of no legal effect.
7. The petitioner in the petition seeking leave is the C: S. D. Employees Welfare Union, Karachi. It was registered as a trade union as early as 7th of August, 1972. It submitted a charter of demands under section 26(1) of the Industrial Relations Ordinance and also served on C. S. D. Subsequently a notice of strike. In this background of events the respondent No. 3, that is, Register Trade Union, himself moved Sind Labour Court for recall of the registration certificate on account of the inapplicability of the Industrial Relations Ordinance. The Labour Court rejected the application holding that "C. S. D. Is a private commercial concern having no connection with Armed Forces". The respondent No. 1, Managing Director C. S. D., invoked the constitutional jurisdiction of the Sind High Court and challenged the registra--petition of the appellants as a Union and the decision of the Labour Court upholding the registration of the Trade Union. The learned Judge in the High Court after examining the history of C. S. D. And the laws applicable to it held that the order of the Sind Labour Court was passed without lawful authority and declared the registration of the appellants under the provisions of the Industrial Relations Ordinance as without lawful authority and of no legal effect.
8. Mr. Afzal Siddiqui, the learned counsel for the appellants, argued that the C. S. D. Was started with private funds. The Government did not contribute financially anything to it. It was a commercial organization dealing with the needs of army personnel which was an altogether different matter than one connected with Defence or Armed Forces. The C. S. D. It has been urged by the learned counsel, is not a service nor an installation such as may qualify for an exemption under section 1(3) of the Industrial Relations Ordinance. The learned counsel for the appellants has filed at the hearing certain letters received by him from U. K. And India to show that C. S. D. Employees Unions in those countries were functioning and had been registered under the Labour Laws. Without examining the laws under which they were registered and functioning, the learned counsel for the appellants contended that it being not very different, those letters should be taken into consideration for understanding interpreting, and applying the -Industrial Relations Ordinance to C. S. D. Employees Union.
9. The learned counsel for the respondent on the other hand has relied on the decision given by this Court in C. A. K-79/1972 General Manager Canteen Stores Department, Karachi v. Abdul Rashid and another decided on 12-9-1982 and in C. A. 20-P/1973 Lt. Muhammad Zaman v. General Manager Canteen Stores Department and another) decided on 14-11-1982 and has also relied upon the decisions in Writ Petition No. 332/73 by Sind High Court and in United Builders and Associates v.
10. Presiding Officer, Punjab Labour Court No. 1 and others (1976 PLC 855).
11. After the decisions given by the Sind High Court (Writ Petition No. 332/1973) and the Peshawar High Court there remains no conflict in views on the subject. Basider the object of C. S. D. When it was a govern--ment undertaking and even after it ceased to be so was and has been not only to supply the entitled personnel with articles of standard quality of daily use, but what .Is more important to "form the basis of an efficient Canteen Organization is peace and war for troops located anywhere in the country and operational areas during the war." This aspect of the purposes of C. S. D. Clearly makes it out to be an Organization connected with Armed Forces, and hence covered by exemptions prescribed in subsection (3) of section 1 of the Industrial Relations Ordinance. It is in the context irrelevant whether it is a government department or a private commercial organization, because certain categories of the employees of the government are in fact governed by Industrial Relations Ordinance while certain other private commercial organization stand excluded from its operation as was the case of United Builders and Associates.
12. The appeal and the petition have no merit and both are dismissed wit no order as to costs.