' This judgment will dispose of W. P. No, 1482 of 1976 (WAPDA through its Chairman v. The Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation and Authority under the Payment of Wages Act, Lahore etc.)
' W. P. No, 1688 of 1976 (WAPDA v. Shaukat All, etc.). W. P. No, 1689 of 1976 (WAPDA v. Barakullah etc.). as the law point involved in all the above-mentioned writ petitions is the same, they will have to be disposed of by one single judgment.
' In W. P. No, 1688 of 1976, the respondent is a Senior Clerk in the Revenue Office, No, 2, Gujranwala.
He submitted an application to the Authority under section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act against the petitioner for the recovery of arrears of salary which were illegally deducted from his wages.
The learned Authority, vide its order dated 1-1-1976, relying on the Amendment made in section 17 of the West Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority Act, 1958 (XXXI of 1958) (hereinafter called the Act) and also in view of some other grounds dismissed the application on the ground that it was not maintainable.
3. In W. P. No, 1689 of 1976, also the respondent is a Senior Clerk in the Revenue Office of the petitioner and he also submitted an application under section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act for the recovery of arrears of salary which were illegally deducted from his wages. This application was also dismissed by the Authority, vide its order dated 1-1-1976. Both the respondents in W. P. No, 1688 of 1976 and W. P. No, 1689 of 1976 filed appeals before the Punjab Labour Court No, 2, Lahore against the order of the Authority dated 1-1-1976 which were accepted, vide its order dated 13-3- 1976, on the ground that this Amendment does not convert the status of a workman Into a civil servant. Aggrieved by the two decisions of the Punjab Labour Court No, 2 Lahore (Camp at Gujranwala) dated 13-3-1976, writ petitions have been filed praying that the respondents are not entitled to invoke the jurisdiction of the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act.
4. In W. P. No, 1482 of 1976, respondent No, 2 filed an application before the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act and a preliminary objection was raised by the petitioner that in view of the Amendment made in section 17 of the Act, respondent No, 2 has become a "civil servant" and cannot invoke the jurisdiction of the Authority. This preliminary objection was turned down, vide order of the Authority undated (Annexure "A") and the ease was fixed for further proceedings for 24-4-1976 for framing of issues on merits. This order dated 26-3-1976 has been challenged before the High Court.
5. The learned counsel for the petitioner has urged that section 17 of the West Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority Act, 1958 (Act XXXI of 1958) has been amended by section 2 of Ordinance XVI of 1975 (The West Pakistan WAPDA (Amendment) 'Ordinance, 1975). By virtue of this amendment, after subsection (0, the following new subsections have been inserted ;- "(1-A) Notwithstanding anything contained in subsection (1) or any rules made, or orders or instructions issued, by the Authority, or in the terms and conditions of service of any person employed by, or serving under the Authority, the Authority may, at any time, remove from its service any person without assigning any reason, after giving him not less than thirty days notice or pay for the period by which such notice falls short of thirty days.
(1-B) Service under the Authority is hereby declared to be service of Pakistan and every person holding a post under the Authority, not being a person who is on deputation to, the Authority from any Province, shall be deemed to be a civil servant for the purposes of the Service Tribunals Act, 1973 (LXX of 1973)."
6. The learned counsel has laid much emphasis on subsection (1-B) and argued that by this amendment every person holding a post under the Authority has been declared to be a "civil servant" for the purposes of the Service Tribunals Act, 1973 and the service under the Authority is declared to be service under Pakistan. The learned counsel further contends that by virtue of this amendment every employee irrespective of the fact that he is officer or the low paid employee will be treated to be in the service of Pakistan and will be deemed to be a "civil servant" and on this basis it is contended that in view of the specific provisions in the Service Tribunals Act, 1973, the respondents can only invoke the jurisdiction of the Tribunal and not the Labour Laws. Under section 3(2) of Act XV of 1973. The Tribunal has exclusive jurisdiction in respect of matters relating to the terms and conditions of service. Since, according to the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner, the recovery of the arrears of wages is included in the terms and conditions of service, the petitioner should have filed an application before the Services Tribunal and the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act has no jurisdiction.
7. The argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner is absolutely devoid of force. The Services Tribunals Act, 1973 defines a "civil servant" does follows :- "'civil servant' has the same meaning as given in the Civil Servants Ordinance, 1973."
' In order to find out the meaning of a "civil servant" the relevant provision of the Civil Servants Ordinance, 1973 is required to be examined. Section 2(d) of Ordinance XIV of 1973 that is the Civil Servants Ordinance, 1973 reads as under :- " 'civil servant' means a person who is a member of an All-Pakistan Service or of a civil service of the Federation, or who holds a civil post in connection with the affairs of the Federation, including any such post connected with defence, but does not include-
(I) a person who is on deputation to the Federation from any Province or other authority ;
(II) a person who is employed on contract, or on work-charged basis, or who is paid from contingencies ; or
(id) a person who is a 'worker' or 'workman' as defined In the Factories Act, 1934 (XXV of 1934), or the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 (VIII of 1923)."
' The framer of Ordinance XVI of 1975 while making amendment treated every person holding a post under the Authority to be a "civil servant" for the purposes of the Service Tribunals Act meaning thereby that while referring to the definition of a "civil servant" as given in the Civil Servants Ordinance, 1973, a "worker" or a "workman" as defined In the Factories Act or the Workmen's Compensation Act is to be excluded from the definition of the term "civil servant". In order to find out whether the respondents are "workmen" under the Workmen's Compensation Act or not the definition of "workman" is given in section 2 of subsection (n) of the Workmen's Compensation Act reads as under :- "'workman' means any person (other than a person whose employment is of a casual nature and who is employed otherwise than for the purpose of the employer's trade or business who is-
(i) a railway servant as defined in section 3 of the Railways Act, 1890) not permanently employed in any administrative, district or sub-divisional office of a railway and not employed in any such capacity as is specified in Schedule II, or
(It) employed * * * on monthly wages not exceeding one thousand rupees, in any such capacity as is specified in Schedule II.
Whether the contract of employment sits made before or after the passing of this Act and whether such contract is expressed or implied, oral or in writing, but does not include any person working in the capacity of a member of the armed forces of Pakistan * * * and any reference to a workman who has been injured shall, where the workman is dead, include a reference to his dependents or any of them."
' For the purposes of the respondents we are concerned with subsection (n), sub-clause (ii) of section 2 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 which says that if the monthly wages do not exceed one thousand rupees and he is employed in any such capacity as is specified in Schedule II he will be considered as a "workman". Schedule II attached to the Workmen's Compensation Act, item (xix) reads "employed in the generating, transforming or supplying of electrical energy or in the generating or supplying of gas."
' Under section 12 of Act XXXI of 1958 the Authority is deemed to be a licensee for the purposes of the Electricity Act, 1910 and under section 8 of the said Act it is one of the duties of the Authority to generate, transmit and distribute power.
8. From the above-mentioned definition it is clear that any employee whose wages do not exceed one thousand rupees and is employed in the WAPDA is a "workman" within the definition of the Workmen's Compensation Act.
9. The next question for determination is whether the respondents can invoke the jurisdiction of the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act? Section 1, subsections (4), (5) and (6) of the Act which are relevant are reproduced below : "(4) It applies in the first instance to the payment of wages to persons employed in any factory and to persons employed (otherwise than in a factory) upon any railway by a railway administration or, either directly or through a sub-contractor, by a person fulfilling a contract with a railway administration.
(5) The Provincial Government may after giving three months notice of its intention of so doing, by notification in the official Gazette, extend the provisions of the Act or any of them to the payment of wages to any class of persons employed in any industrial establishment or any class or group of industrial establishments.
(6) Nothing in this Act shall apply to wages payable in respect of a wage period which, over such wage period, average more than one thousand rupees a month."
' This Act would apply to persons employed in any factory. The word "factory" is defined under the Factories Act, 1934. Section 2( j) defines "factory" in the following words :- "'factory' means any premises, including the precincts thereof, whereon ten or more workers are working or were working on any day of the preceding twelve months, and In any part of which a manufacturing process is being carried on or is ordinarily carried on with or without the aid of power, but does not include a mine, subject to the operation of the Mines Act, 1923 (IV of 1923)." "manufacturing process" means any process-
(i) for making, altering, repairing, ornamenting, finishing or packing, or otherwise treating any article or substance with a view to its use, sale, transport, delivery or disposal, or
(ii) for pumping oil, water or sewage, or
(iii) for generating, transforming or transmitting power."
The bare reading of this section would show that a person who is employed for generating, transforming or transmitting power will be considered as employed in the factory. So for the purposes of the. Respondents whose wages do not exceed one thousand rupees and who are employees of WAPDA, they will be treated as employees of factory within the meaning of section 2 of the Factories Act. On this view of the matter the respondents rightly invoked the jurisdiction of the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act and the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner is absolutely devoid force.
10. The learned counsel for the petitioner further contended that after all what was the necessity of making this amendment in section 17 of Act XXXI of 1958. The effect of this amendment appears to be that those employees whose wages exceed one thousand rupees will be considered to be in the Civil Service of Pakistan and as such they will not be governed by the Labour Laws but other employees of WAPDA whose monthly wages do not exceed one thousand rupees shall continue to be governed by labour laws.
11. In view of what has been observed above, I dismiss all the three writ petitions with costs.