' Mumtaz Ali Rocket Group of the United Labour Union, Punjab Road Transport Corporation (Inter- City) Depot, Multan had filed a complaint against the District Manager and the Traffic Manager of the P.R.T.C. Multan, in the Punjab Labour Court No, 9, Multan, invoking the provisions of section 22- A(12) read with sections 15, 16 and 53 of the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969, and had also sought issuance of an ad interim injunction, with a view to restrain the respondents from indulging in activities and acts complained of, allegedly calculated to harm legitimate interests of the complainant in the sphere of his trade union activities. The learned lower Court passed an order on 13-8-1995 disposing of the application for stay order, granting to the complainant the relief asked for, only partially. The rival group of the United Labour Union, having been arrayed as respondent 41o.3 (in the application for ad interim injunction), has come up in appeal to this Court; and learned counsel for the appellant, as also Mumtaz Ali, in person, have addressed the Court. The representative of the P.R.T.C., Multan has also been eared.
2. Prayers made by Mumtaz Ali were manifold. He submitted and prayed at the conductors only should be detailed for duty on the vehicles, to the exclusion of any other employee, drawn from different sections of the Establishment. It should be the business of the Traffic Manager and none else. Vehicles for Vehari and Shujabad should be booked from the previous bus stand. 11 the 499 members of the union should be directed to contribute fund for the month of March. Canteen run by Muhammad Yasin should not be demolished but not the least, part of the prayer made by Mumtaz Ali was that his supporters should not be transferred, or removed or ousted from service or arassed in any manner.
3. The learned lower Court has not conceded to the aforesaid requests, excepting one, namely, protection claimed by Mumtaz Ali as regards his own people. Respecting apprehended closure or demolition of the canteen, the Civil court had been approached, and rightly so, by the aggrieved party, but the move et with failure. The request made in respect of the conductors' duty has largely been turned down, and a partial or a contingent relief has been granted. It has en ordered by the Court below that the conductors only should be deputed to Bork on vehicles, and if they fall short or are on rest, services of the members of the remaining staff should be utilized. Probably this is the only part of the life that has caused grouse to Mumtaz Ali Rocket's rival group, who are in your of deputing all the members of the Staff to work as conductors, which duty, according to them, should not be confined to conductors alone. They say, is a source of income, as by earning T.A., D.A. They add to their fortune. Conductors, however, are generally ill-reputed, as they earn by indulging in regularities, causing loss to the income of the Corporation, as also to public tersest. No Court should be in state of readiness to afford protection to such people, who are civil servants, but are prone to committing unfair practices, hitch in turn prejudice public interest. Actually the appellants do not seem to be crested in performance of duties as conductors for legitimate earnings, what eye aim at is amassing of wealth through unfair means. There is another aspect should a Court feel the necessity of issuing any direction in regard to eternal working of a Government Department or a Corporation. Their actives and experts only are supposed to be conversant with their day-to-day working and the nature of duties of their subordinates. It would not be fair, as so lawful, to bind them to do an act in a particular manner, by an injunction sued in mandatory or prohibitive form.
4. The Head Office of the Corporation has issued instructions to the district Managers not to allow other members of the staff to perform duties of inductors. Such instructions appear to have been issued in public interest. Their compliance should be insisted upon and infringement thereof should be discouraged. To that extent, the order of the learned Labour Court would not hold good, even though Mumtaz Ali Rocket Group has not filed an appeal, ventilating their grievances on that score.
The rival group, namely, the appellants do not have a sound case, in so far as their request about utilization of all the members of the staff as conductors is concerned.
5. There is indeed an odd plea advanced by the complainant before the Labour Court; and surprisingly the learned Court has 'allowed it to have sway, although in a wavering manner. Why should the Court come to the rescue of a group of a trade union, for mustering support and strength in its favour? Mumtaz Ali Rocket Group is keen that their supporters (they have said it in so many words) must not be transferred, shifted from their positions and removed from service and should not be subjected to any kind of harassment or intimidation. The request made aims at keeping the supporters intact. The learned lower Court has desired and directed that supporters of the complainant should not be disturbed and thus their vested interests have been safeguarded.
Of course, anybody, including members of a particular group of the trade union, ought not to be victimized by the management, which should scrupulously decline to play second fiddle to any group. Rival groups have been accusing each other of acting in a manner, as if one is the 'pocket' body of the management. If there is a genuine complaint on that score, the aggrieved party or group will have other remedies open to it. But to say in so many words that members of a particular group are not liable to transfer anywhere, or to disciplinary action, on any count, would be expecting too much from the management, as also from the Court. Towards end of the order, the learned lower Court has observed that the management would be competent to dismiss, terminate or transfer supporters of the complainant, law permitting. This would then make the matter pretty ambiguous, and it will amount to nullifying the previous portion of the order, touching the subject of transfer or punishment of certain class of the employees. The prayers made by Mumtaz Ali Rocket Group, as also the protection sought by the rival group, appellant before this forum, all verily proceeded on no valid premises. The management must be left to deal with their employees in accordance with their own rules and regulations, of course, in a fair manner, always.
With these Observations, the appeal is dismissed.
6. The contentions raised by the learned counsel for the appellant, as regards competence of the complaint, and other such aspects of the case, I have purposely refrained from discussing, for the same relate to the merits of the case, and findings thereon shall be recorded by the Labour Court when regular hearing of the main matter takes place.