ANWARUL HAQ, C. J.-This petition under Article 98 of the Constitution seeks to challenge the validity of the inclusion of certain names in the list of voters prepared by the Registrar of Trade Unions for the purpose of holding a secret ballot, under section 22 of the Industrial Relations Ordinance 1969, so as to determine and declare the collective bargaining agent as between the rival Unions, namely, the P.D.H Laboratiers Employees and WORKER Union. Union, The secret ballot was to be held on 23 of June 1970. By an interim order made by this Court on the 22nd of June 1970, it was directed that the election may be held but the result would not be declared during the pendency of this petition. As a consequence it is not known as to which of the two contending Unions has obtained a majority of votes.
2. The grievance of the petitioner-Union is that the respondent-Union is a pocket Union registered for the sole purpose of depriving the petitioner from being declared the collective bargaining agent for the Industrial Establishment concerned, and that for this purpose at least seventy-two persons were specially employed and made members of the respondent --Union, and on that basis included in the voters' list although their period of employment in the Establishment was less than three months. It is submitted that under clause (a) of sub--section (8) of section 22 of the Ordinance the Registrar of Trade Unions was under a statutory obligation to exclude from the list of voters all employees whose period of employment was less than three months or who were not members of any Trade Union.rd
3. The relevant provision as contained in clause (a) of subsection (8) of section 22 of the Ordinance runs as follows t- ---(a) The Registrar shall obtain lists of all workmen employed in the establishment or industrial unit, or as the case may be the whole industry from the employers. Such lists shall contain details as set out in subsection (7) of all workmen. The names of workmen whose period of employ--ment in their establishment or industrial unit is less than three months, and who are not members of a.
Trade Union, shall be excluded from these lists. The employers shall provide facilities to the Registrar for verification of these lists. Upon verification, the Registrar shall certify the lists and give copies thereof to each of the registered Trade Unions or federations in the establishment or industrial unit or as the case may be the whole industry, at least four days prior to the date of holding of the ballot.---
4. From a plain reading of the above provision of law it becomes clear that the Registrar of Trade Unions is to obtain from the employer a list of all workmen employed in the establishment etc., and not only of those workmen who are members of any Union. He is then to exclude from these lists the names of workmen whose period of employment is less than three months and who are not members of a trade Union. In other words, for the purpose of excluding a workman from the list of voters it must be shown that he suffers from two disqualifications, namely:-
(a) That his period of employment is less than three months,
(b) that he is not a member of a Trade Union.
If any of these disqualifications is absent, then the workman concerned is entitled to be included in the list.
5. Tee argument on behalf of the petitioner is that the word "and" used in the disqualification clause must be read dis--junctively as meaning "or" for the reason that it is preceded by a comma, with the necessary consequence that a workman will stand disqualified either because his period of employment is less than three months or because he is not a member of a Trade Union. It is submitted that this interpretation finds support from the amendment subsequently made in the relevant provision by Ordinance XIX of 1970 by which the entire section 22 of the-- Ordinance was reconstituted and subsection (8) replaced by sub--section (5) and worded as follows: - "(5) The Registrar shall, after verification of the lists submitted by the Trade Unions, prepare a list of voters in which shall be included the name of every workman whose period of employment is not less than three months and who is a member of any of the contesting Trade Unions and shall, at least four days prior to the date fixed for the poll, send to each of the contesting Trade Unions a certified copy of the list of voters so prepared."
6. We regret we do not see any substance in the sub--missions made on behalf of the petitioner.
According to the ordinary dictionary meaning the word "and" is intended to connect the two clauses or qualifications and has to be construed conjunctively unless the context indicates to the contrary. The use of the comma immediately preceding the word "and" in the relevant portion of clause (a) of subsection (8) has no significant whatsoever for the purpose of determining the true scope of the disqualification clause. It is well settled that punctuation is not an essential part of a statute and does not control its meaning (See Craies on Statute Law, Sixth Edn., p. 197) and Khair Muhammad v. State (PLD 1963 Kar. 757). The clause as worded clearly shows that in order to justify exclusion from the list of voters the workmen must suffer from two disqualifications, namely, that his period, of employment should be less than three months and that he should not be a member of a Trade Union. If either of these disqualifications is not present, then he is entitled to be included.
To put it differently, it means that a workman with less than three months employment would be entitled to be enrolled as a. Voter if he is a member of a Trade Union; or conversely he is entitled to vote if his period of service is more than three months even though he is not a member of Trade Union. This last meaning becomes abundantly clear when we notice the opening words of clause
(a) of subsection (8) which enjoin --the Registrar to obtain from the employer a list of all workmen employed in the establishment and not merely of those- who are --members of a Trade Union.
7. It is true that by the amending Ordinance (XIX of 1970) the position was redically altered, and instead of prescribing the disqualifications of voters the law-maker prescribed their qualifications by directing that in the list of voters shall be included the name of every workman whose period of employ--ment is not less than three months and who is a member of any of the contesting Trade Unions. Here again, the word "and" is obviously to be construed conjunctively and both the qualifications, must be present before a workman is entitled to be included in the list of voters. The amendment, It seems to us, clearly shows that the previous law was different and it was for this purpose that the entire provision was substituted by a new one, couched in positive rather than negative terms.
8. For the foregoing reasons, we consider that the Registrar, Trade Unions, was acting within the law by including in the list of voters the names of all workmen who were members of a Trade Union although their period of employment was less c than three months. Similarly, he was also right in including the names of those workmen, who were not members of a Trade Union but whose period of employment was more than three months.
9. As a result, the petition fails and is hereby dismissed with costs.