Arijit Pasayat, J. - (1.) Appellant calls in question legality of the judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissing the writ petition filed by the appellant and upholding the award made by the Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Gurdaspur.
(2.) Factual background in a nutshell is as follows : The respondent (hereinafter referred to as the ,workman,) made a grievance before the State Government that his services were illegally terminated by the appellant (hereinafter referred to as the ,employer,). Reference was made by the State Government under Section 10(1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (in short the ,Act,) for adjudication the following question : "Whether termination of services of Sh. Sowaran Singh workman is justified and in order If not, to what relief/exact amount of compensation is he entitled
(3.) The case of the workman as pleaded in the demand notice was that he was appointed by the employer w.e.f. 1-4-1986 on regular basis against the regular post and was being paid Rs. 1200/- p.m. His services were illegally terminated by the employer on 12-2-1994 without any notice, notice pay and retrenchment compensation. No charge-sheet was filed or enquiry held. Though he approached the employer, but to no effect and, therefore, he had prayed for his re-instatement with continuity of service and back wages. The employer filed its written statement taking the stand that the reference was factually and legally erroneous as the services of the workman were never terminated on 12-2-1994 as alleged. In fact he had abandoned the job. He was engaged on casual basis on daily wages for specific period and for specific work. He was never issued any appointment order in respect of any regular post and/or regular basis. There was also no vacancy at the relevant time. The Labour Court framed four issues for adjudication which are as under : "1. Whether the workman abandoned the job of his own accord 2. Whether the reference is not maintainable as alleged in P.O. of W/S 3. Whether the applicant is entitled to the amount claimed in the application 4. Relief." ;