By this judgment, I propose to dispose of as many as nineteen appeals (Nos.307/1995 to 325/1995), having been preferred by the Municipal Committee, Dera Ghazi Khan against different persons.
Legal propositions involved, and the facts, which will shortly be stated below, are identical.
Muhammad Dilshad, Shamsher Ahmad Qureshi, Syed Tenveer Hussain, Muhammad Aslam, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Rafi, Saleem Ahmad, Muhammad Younas Ansari, Muhammad Afzaal, Karim Bakhsh, Munir Hussain, Sadiq Hussain, Sajjad Hussain, Majad Hussain, Saeed Ahmad, Abdul Hafeez, Shahid Hussain, Muhammad Arif and Muhammad Naeem Tahir, respondents in the aforesaid appeals, had been employed by the Municipal Committee, Dera Ghazi Khan, as Teachers, in February, 1993, and their services were terminated in November, 1993. They brought these orders under challenge by having recourse to Punjab Labour Court No. 9, Multan, by filing grievance petitions under section 25-A, Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969, which all were accepted on 11-10-1995. Soundness of these judgments has been called in question by the Municipal Committee by preferring appeals under sections 37 and 38 of the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969. Contentions raised may briefly be enumerated as follows.
3. The judgment of the Labour Court is the outcome of mis-reading and non-reading of evidence and is not based on its correct appraisal, as also proper interpretation and objective application of law. Terms and conditions of service of the respondents would be governed by the Punjab Local Government Ordinance, 1979, and an hierarchy of the Authorities to deal with departmental representations of these employees and to hear and decide their appeals/revisions has been provided in the enactment itself, as also in the Municipal Committee. Service Rules framed thereunder. The respondents' cannot claim to be workmen and the Municipal Committee does not fall within the definition of factory or industry, and the provisions of Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969, therefore, would not be applicable. The learned Labour Court has exercised the jurisdiction not vested in it and has also ventured to exercise jurisdiction, if one is available, illegally and with material irregularity. Selection of these teachers was made by a so-called Selection Committee, on the basis of a factitious advertisement published in Press (a local weekly), management of which, in collusion with the Chief Officer of the Municipal Committee, maneuvered to publish only a leaf- let, with a view to fulfil the technical requirement of such recruitment. Notice to the public was not publicized in a regular issue of the newspaper, with the result that although there is tremendous unemployment, only a selected few candidates applied for the jobs and were interviewed by the Selection Committee, comprising the Chairman and the Chief Officer, to the exclusion of the third member, namely, the Superintendent, Education Branch. Ante--dated and manipulated minutes were made part of the record, and on one and the same day the applications were received and the interviews were shown to have been conducted. Actually, the appointments were made against quotas of the Municipal Councilors, and thus the fact that there was political interference with the working of the Municipal Committee cannot possibly be disputed. The appointments were made beyond budgetary limitations and in violation of the relevant rules, regulations and instructions, and the services of the respondents had, therefore, to be dispensed with.
4. Learned lower Court has dealt with all these aspects of the case by referring to the relevant legal provisions, as also the case-law on the subject. In certain decisions rendered by this Tribunal in the past, as 1986 PLC 283/978 and 1993 PLC 834, it has been pronounced that a Municipal Committee would not fall outside the ambit of an 'industry' and its affairs would be governed by the provisions of the Industrial Relations Ordinance,, 1969, as also the West Pakistan Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Orders) Ordinance, 1968. As held in 1992 PLC 1090, a Municipal Committee teacher is a workman. A labourer or a worker, who has completed a period of three months' probation, without any stigma, has to be regarded as a permanent workman, and he cannot just be asked to quit. Before terminating his services, he has to be served , with a statutory notice, and has also to be heard. If he is found guilty of some kind of misconduct, within the legal phraseology, he will be given a show-cause notice, served with a charge-sheet and made to face an inquiry, and he will, of course, also be entitled to question the result of such inquiry, if it goes against him.
The respondents had remained in service for a period exceeding three months and had thus attained status of permanent workmen. Since their services were A dispensed with, without observance of all these formalities, the impugned orders are liable to be struck down as being invalid and inoperative orders.
5. The respondents, being in enjoyment of status of workman, could very well invoke the jurisdiction of the Labour Court for redress of their grievances; and it cannot possibly be urged that the Labour Court, as also this forum, lack the competence in the matter. Departmental codes, regulations, policy circulars, etc. Would obviously not be applicable; and thus reference to the same would be irrelevant. Submission made by the learned counsel for the appellant that proper Authority for the aggrieved employees, for having access to, was the Deputy Commissioner, the Commissioner, and finally the Secretary, Local Government, has, therefore, no substance.
6. In so far as the alleged use of political influence by the respondents in securing their appointments is concerned it must be remembered that it has become the rule of day, and those hankering around for job opportunities have to bank on such 'approaches', and it is indeed woeful that appointments are seldom made on merit. But then the respondents must not be made to suffer, if through Councilors or other political figures, they had obtained the employment. Those, who were guilty of bestowing favour upon these persons, in getting appointments, over and above the sanctioned strength, or in violation of rules or public policy, must be taken on task, and a ruthless crusade must be carried out to eradicate corruption and to rectify and 'reform the system, which all around has gone morbid.
7. Some of the respondents are also stated to be overage. In this regard, the Labour Court has referred to Letter No. S.O. (P&C) 8-10/86. (Rules), dated 18-8-1991, issued by the Education Department of the Government of Punjab, which policy letter prescribed 50 years' age for the post of a P.T.C. Teacher. As to how that appalling relaxation in age was allowed, it is for the Authorities to consider, and they may refix it at a lower level, but that would be valid for the future.
8. The appeals all are the-barred. I am not prepared to lend ears to the contention that no limitation would run against a void order. If such an argument is adopted, every aggrieved person would come along and say that as the judicial verdict against him is not sound and has not been delivered in consonance with principles of natural justice and in keeping with well-known cannons of propriety, equity and fair play, he could well-ignore it, and, at will, and according to his convenience, could challenge it in the higher Court, irrespective of all technical considerations, including the statutory the-limit. It will not be denied that superior Courts have also rendered multiple judgments in laying down the rule that delay of each and every day in bringing a cause before a legal forum has to be explained and Courts have very miserly and rigidly been responding to requests made for condonation of delays. The reasons stated in the applications under section 5 of the Limitation Act, accompanying the appeals, appear to be in the nature of fabrication, as the relevant facts have not correctly been stated. It cannot be accepted that the appellant body had fallen prey to a bona fide mistake, or that its self-assumed belief about the appeals having been filed within the, was based on any valid premises.
9. The appeals are barred by the law of limitation, and are also devoid of merit, in view of the above discussion, and are hereby dismissed, although with no orders as to costs.