DECISION This appeal calls in question the order of the Labour Court No. 1, Karachi whereby the petition containing the prayer for reinstatement came to be dismissed. The circumstances in which the dispute arose are as follows:-- The petitioner's case was that he was appointed as a Chowkidar on 18-9-1988 and his services came to be verbally terminated on 11-11-1990. As the grievance notice was unproductive he had therefore filed the petition.
2. The petition came to be resisted on the ground that it was barred by time and that the West Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968, for reasons more than one was not applicable.
3. The Labour Court dismissed the petition on the short ground that the number of employees with respondent was just 8.
4. Muhammad Farooq the witness for the respondent had produced the Muster Roll according to which the number of the employees with the respondent was only 8. He had not been tested in cross-examination on that score. There is also no evidence forthcoming from the appellant's side to rebut it. But there is more to it.
5. The respondent's case was that the appellant 's services had been terminated in writing by an order dated 25-10-1989. Obviously the appellant had the other version. Even the postal receipt despatching the order is not on the record. However, the appellant in his cross-examination admits his signature on the appeal against the order of termination filed before the Administrator.
According to Muhammad Farooq the appeal was rejected. Patently the theory of verbal termination had been spun out to bring the grievance notice within time. That will be an additional reason against the maintainability of the petition.
6. The appeal is devoid of all merit and stands dismissed.