1987 PLP 688 (PLC)

This is a revision reporting that the order dated 9‑12‑1985 recorded by the learned Presiding Officer, Punjab Labour Court No.2, Lahore in its Appellate jurisdiction and the order dated 23‑9‑1984 passed by the Authority under the Payment of Wages Act, are without jurisdiction and of no legal effect.

2. The respondent challenged the order of fixation of his pay in a petition brought under section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act. Previously with regard to a different period the respondent had brought similar application under section 15 of the Payment of Wages Act which had been accepted. The subsequent petition was accepted on the basis of the previous order. The previous order was not challenged in appeal, nor came before this Court under any revision. The question of fixation of the pay of the respondent arose for the reason that the National Pay Scales were introduced in the Railways on 1‑3‑1972. The fixation cannot be checked and it cannot be seen whether it has been done rightly or wrongly unless it is disclosed in what scale the employee concerned was and what pay he was drawing immediately before the N. P. S. scales were introduced on 1‑3‑1972. Likewise it is difficult to examine the question unless it is shown in what new scale of pay the respondent was placed after 1‑3‑1972 and what was the detail of that scale. The learned representative appearing for the respondent was asked to disclose these facts from the file but he showed his inability because the case was not fought by the parties and decided by the learned Courts below in that manner. I do not find any force in the argument of the learned representative that since the fixation had been ordered to be wrong by the Authority in the previous order, the subsequent petition was rightly decided on its basis. Even the previous petition was not decided considering the facts mentioned above. It is said that the witness appearing for the Railways had in that case stated that the fixation had been wrongly done. No copy of the statement of the said employee of the Railway is on the record, it, therefore, cannot be said what he had actually stated. Even if it be said that the said witnesses had admitted that the fixation had not been done correctly, yet it was to be decided by the Authority even in the previous case what was the correct fixation and this could not be done unless the scale and the pay which the respondent was drawing immediately before the introduction of National Pay Scales on 1‑3‑1972 and what was the National Pay Scale on 1‑3‑1972 in which the respondent was placed. Mode of fixation is given in the notification whereby the National Pay Scales were introduced and the said notification is also not on the record. The decisions of the Courts below, therefore, are not sustainable.

3. As a result, the revision is accepted and setting aside the impugned decisions of the learned Courts below, the case is remanded to the learned Authority for fresh decision in the light of the observations made above after affording opportunity to both the parties to produce evidence. A.E./325/Lb.P Case remanded.