' The petitioner has taken the exception to the order dated 7-11-2002 passed by respondent No,1 on a reference referred to by the respondent No,2 with regard to the payment of compensation of the injuries sustained by injured persons, namely, Elahi Bux, Allah Ditta, Ahmad Bux, Muhammad Akbar and Noor Muhammad in an accident during the course of their employment in Ashraf Sugar Mills Ltd., Ashrafabad, Bahawalpur due to the hot water coming out of the boiler feeded by storage tank.
The petitioner had raised a preliminary objection before the respondent No,1 with regard to the maintainability of the reference.
2. Learned counsel for the petitioner contended that only the persons mentioned in section 10 of the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 are competent to forward the reference to the Commissioner for due compensation for payment to the employers by the employees and the respondent No,2 Labour Officer-I (Factories) was not competent to refer the said reference.
3. I have heard the learned counsel at length and gone through the record.
4. There is no dispute with regard to the compensation to be paid to the injured who have received injuries on 10th September, 2001, section 10-C of the said Act has empowered that a Labour Commissioner, an Inspector of Factories OF any other officer authorized by the Provincial Government for this purpose may refer, in the prescribed manner, to the Commissioner cases of workmen who have not been paid due compensation by the employers under the provisions of this Act.
5. Section 32(1) of the said Act has empowered the Provincial Government to make ules to carry out the purposes of the said Act and in- exercise of the powers conferred upon the Government by section 32, the Government has framed rules called as West Pakistan Workmen's Compensation Rules, 1961, and Rule 14 of the said Rules emerges as under:-- "Certain officers may refer cases of compensation to Commissioner. The Director, Labour Welfare.
The Assistant Directors, Labour Welfare, the Labour Officers, and the Assistant Labour Officers within their respective jurisdictions, may refer to the Commissioner in Form FF cases of workmen, who have not been paid due compensation by the employers."
' From the plain reading of the above-said rule 14, it reveals that Labour Officer is competent to refer the cases for compensation of workmen to the Commissioner through Form FF as provided in the rules.
6. In accordance with the provisions of section 10-C of said Act as well as ,rule 14 of the West Pakistan Workmen's Compensation Rules, 1961, the Labour Commissioner, Labour Officers and Labour Inspector are fully competent to refer the matter to the Commissioner for workmen compensation and this reference can be made through Form "FF" and from the scrutiny of the record, it transpired that respondent No,2 had reported the matter to the Commissioner/respondent No,1 after adopting the prescribed procedure.
7. Learned counsel for the petitioner has not been able to point out any illegality or violation of any law and rules and thus has miserably failed to persuade this Court to interfere with the impugned order. Resultantly, this writ petition having no force is dismissed in limine.