DECISION This appeal has arisen in the following circumstances.
2. The petitioner, who is respondent herein, was selected in the Station Master Group in 1978 and after completing the training at Walton Training School, Lahore was posted as a Signaler. In the year 1980 he was promoted as an Assistant Station Master Grade 1, and functioned as such for five years. It was alleged in the petition that since the petitioner's mother and also his wife had fallen seriously ill, and there being no other male member in the family, the petitioner had requested the Authorities for a temporary reversion from the post of Assistant Station Master Grade I to Signaler Grade I and the same was acceded to. A year later when he was again promoted as Relieving Assistant Station Master, his seniority was however fixed at the bottom of Assistant Station Masters cadre which was in contravention of the rules. He had made representations but the same came to be turned down on 19-8-1989. He had, therefore, sent the Grievance Notice on 1-10-1989 and filed the Grievance Petition before the Labour Court on 7-11-1989.
3. The petition came to be resisted on every conceivable ground and it would be idle to enumerate the same.
4. The petitioner was his own witness and Syed Massom Raza appeared on behalf of the respondents.
5. The Labour Court found that the petition was not barred by time and the prayer for the restoration of his original seniority was eminently justified. It, therefore, allowed the petition with full back benefits.
6. The objection about the petition being barred by time is rather thin, as on the showing of Syed Massom Raza the request of the respondent for the restoration of his original seniority had been turned down only on 19-8-1989. That being so, the contention as can be seen was totally in supportable and was properly turned down by the Labour Court.
7. Further the reversion to the post of the Signaler from the post of Assistant Station Master Grade-I was on the request of the respondent himself. Admittedly he had worked as an Assistant Station Master Grade I for five years when this had happened. According to Syed Massom Raza the Pakistan Railway Personnel Manual, Volume I will be applicable to the respondents case. Rule 602
(ii) thereof reads as under:-- "Reduction from a higher grade or Class to a lower grade or Class for a certain prescribed length of time shall not affect an employee's seniority to the grade or Class from which reduced or restoration thereto."
8. Under the circumstances there was no reason to deny the earlier seniority. The stand of the appellants is all the more indefensible, as the reduction was sought by the respondent himself.
There is no merit in this appeal. I will, therefore, uphold the impugned order and dismiss the appeal.