' The petitioner Messrs Packages Limited through this Constitutional petition has prayed for declaration that order of respondent No,1 dated 15-3-1983 is illegal and without jurisdiction.
2. The relevant facts are that respondent No,3 was employed in P.C. Department of the petitioner.
He allegedly went on strike and incited his coworkers to close work. He was, accordingly, served with a show-cause notice dated 13-5-1977. Thereafter an inquiry was held and ultiOately he was dismissed from service vide order dated 29-6-1977. The respondent h..).3 filed a grievance petition before Punjab Labour Court. The same was partially accepted. The result was that the worker was re-instated without back benefits. This order was challenged by the worker through an appeal before respondent No,1 but the same was ultimately withdrawn on 13-2-1981. The respondent No,2 set aside the order of dismissal of the respondent No,3 on the ground of want of second show- cause notice, therefore, the petitioner proceeded to serve the respondent No,3 with a second show-cause notice and thereafter repeated the order of dismissal. The respondent No,3 once again challenged this order before respondent No,2 but this time luck did not favour him and his petition was dismissed. Thereafter he filed an appeal before the respondent No,1, who accepted the same on the ground that the Inquiry Officer did not consider and discuss the defence evidence.
The result was that the worker was once again re-instated with 50% back benefits. The petitioner has challenged this order. The petition was admitted to regular hearing and notices were issued to the respondents. The respondent No,3 initially entered appearance through Advocate but today nobody appeared on behalf of the respondents, therefore, they are proceeded ex parte.
3. The learned counsel for the petitioner argued that there was no scope to find fault with the report of the Inquiry Officer in view of the fact that proceedings upto the stage of second notice have been held valid in the earlier round. It is submitted that the case was to proceed from the stage of second notice. The arguments are summed up with the submission that the back benefits having been refused in the earlier round and appeal against the same dismissed as withdrawn, therefore, no back benefits could have been legally granted.
4. I have given my anxious consideration to the arguments of the learned counsel for the petitioner and gone through the record. The respondent No,3 raised all sorts of objections and rightly to his dismissal. The same were noted and decided against him except non-service of second notice by the respondent No,2 in the first round. The second round started with the issuance of show-cause notice, therefore, there was no scope for finding fault with the report of the Inquiry Officer. This is not all. I have gone through the present grievance petition as well as the first one and find that this question was not raised by the respondent No,3. I have also gone through the report of the Inquiry Officer with the assistance of the learned counsel for the petitioner and find that the Inquiry Officer at page 19 of this paper book has discussed the evidence on record and the same reads as under:- - "I have gone through the evidence and examined the record carefully. It appears from the evidence that the work on machine was suspended from 3-00 p.m. To 4-00 p.m. Due to an occurrence of dispute between two rival groups. Apart from P.Ws. D.W.2 Muhammad Tasneem Supervisor) also elaborated in his evidence about the occurrence and late working on machines.
Muhammad Hussain Shift Incharge pointed out these alleged, workers to be the responsible persons for this whole act."
This knocks out the basis on which the respondent No,1 proceeded to accept the appeal of respondent No,3. It is clear from this that respondent No,1 proceeded on surmises and conjectures and misread the material evidence on record.
5. The upshot of this discussion is that writ is issued and order of respondent No,1 dated 15-3-1983 is set aside. There is no order as to costs.