Industrial Relations Ordinance 1969 Section 25 Complaint Notice For a service period of 3 months, the complaint should be filed within 2 months from the date of receipt of notice of notice, if notice is received within 15 days of service of notice. A complaint request will be filed. If no response is received after 21 months from the date of service of complaint notice or reply is received after expiry of 15 days from the notice service, no response to complaint notice has been received. Appeal filed beyond the month period
Appeal No. KAR‑25 of 1983, heard on 13th February, 1983.
Industrial Relations Ordinance (XXIII of 1969)‑---
--‑‑ S. 25‑A‑Limitation‑‑Period of 3 months for service of grievance notice‑Grievance petition‑‑To be filed within 2 months from date of receipt of reply to grievance notice if reply received within 15 days of service of notice‑Grievance petition to be filed within 21 months from date of service of grievance notice if no reply is received or reply received after expiry of 15 days from date of service of notice ‑‑ No reply to grievance notice received‑Petition filed beyond period of 2J months from service of grievance notice‑‑Petition time‑barred‑No valid grounds made out for condonation of delay‑Petition, in circumstances, held, rightly dismissed as time‑barred.
S. P. Lodhi for Appellant.
Date of hearing : 13th February, 1983.
ORDER The appellant, who was 'employed as a Baker in the respondent hotel, was dismissed from service, vide letter, dated 21st .November, 1981 on the ground of his remaining absent for a period exceeding 10 days, after the expiry of his sanctioned leave. The said letter of dismissal is stated to have been sent to the appellant by registered post to his Rawalpindi address. The appellant challenged the order of his dismissal from service before the learned Vth Labour Court which has dismissed the same on the ground that the grievance petition was filed by the appellant more than 21 months after the service of the grievance notice by the appellant‑ on the respondent hotel.
2. The grievance notice given by the appellant to the respondent hotel is dated 4th January, 1982. It was sent by the appellant by registered post. As the grievance notice was sent from Karachi and the respondent hotel is also located in Karachi, the grievance notice must have reached the respondent hotel within a week at the most. The grievance petition should, therefore, have been filed latest by 26th March, 1982 i.e.* within 21 months of 11th January, 1982. However, it was filed on 30th March, 1982. As such, the grievance petition was time‑barred by at least 4 days.
3. It was contended by Mr. S. P. Lodhi, the learned representative for the appellant, that this short period of delay in the filing of the grievance petition by the appellant should be condoned as the appellant had gone to Rawalpindi to contact the Medical Officer there since the respondent hotel had refused to accept the medical certificates submitted by the appellant on the ground that the said certificate did not bear his signatures. It may be explained that it is the case of the appellant that .while on leave at Rawalpindi he had fallen ill and had taken treatment from the Medical Officer, C. M. L. A. Secretariat (Internal), who had issued the certificates Exhs. 3/C and 3/D indicating that the appellant was ill and was advised one month's rest with effect from 1st October, 1981 and that he was fit to resume his duties with effect from 1st January, 1982. The appellant had submitted these certificates to the management on his return to Karachi but the management had refused to allow him to resume his duties, on the grounds, firstly, that by reason of his absence without leave he had been dismissed from service, vide order, dated 21st November, 1981 and that further the medical certificates produced by the appellant could not be relied upon as they did not bear his signatures. It appears that the appellant was conscious of the fact that his grievance petition was time barred and hence alongwith his grievance petition he bad submitted an application for condonation of the delay. In that application, the sole ground urged was that the appellant had gone to Rawalpindi to contact the Medical Officer who had issued the 2 medical certificates. Now, in the first place, it is not known when the appellant went to Rawalpindi to contact the Medical Officer. Further more, the letter by which the appellant was informed that the medical certificates produced by him could not be accepted as they did not bear his signatures is dated 26th January, 1982. The appellant thus had almost 2 months within which to obtain fresh medical certificates or to contact the Medical Officer at Rawalpindi. This period was more than adequate for the above purpose. If, however, the appellant waited till the period of limitation was about to expire before proceeding to Rawalpindi or needlessly lingered on at Rawalpindi, assuming that in fact be went to Rawalpindi, for which there is no evidence beyond his bare word, he is entirely to blame for the same. Moreover, though he has claimed to have gone to Rawalpindi, .admittedly, he. neither obtained fresh certificates from the Medical Officer at Rawalpindi nor did he get the certificates altered by having his signatures thereon. As such, no valid ground for the condonation of delay has been made out by the appellant.
4. It was next sought to be argued by Mr. S. P. Lodhi, the learned representative for the appellant that the grievance petition was filed within 5 months of the issuance of the orders of dismissal of the appellant and hence is in time. Section 25‑A, I. R. O. however, prescribed 2 separate, and distinct periods of limitation. The first period, which is of 3 months, is for the service of the grievance notice upon the employer, and the second period, which is 2 months from the date of receipt of the reply to the grievance notice, provided that the reply is received within 15 days of the service of the grievance notice, and if no reply is received to the grievance notice or the reply to the grievance notice is received after the expiry of 15 days from the service of grievance notice upon the employer. the period is 2 months from the service of the grievance notice. In the instant case, since the reply to the grievance notice was received after the expiry of 15 days from the service of the grievance notice on the respon dent hotel, the grievance petition had to be filed within 2 months of the service of the grievance notice on the employer. As it was filed beyond the period of 2 months from the service of the grievance notice on the employer and no valid ground have been made out for the condonation of delay in filing the grievance petition, the appeal is dismis sed in limine.
A. E. Appeal dismissed,
