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Appeal No. KAR-224 of 1983, heard on 22nd November, 1984.

--- Retirement on medical grounds--Railway employee declared invalid by Medical Board for Paranoid kind of schizophrenia--Labour Court finding that retirement was proper and legal--Order of Labour Court dismissing grievance petition against retirement upheld by Appellate Tribunal--Industrial Relations Ordinance (XXIII of 1969), Ss.25-A & 38(3).

Muhammad Ahmed for Appellant.

A.T. Mahmood for Respondents.

Date of hearing: 22^nd November, 1984.

This appeal is directed against the impugned order of the Sind Labour Court No. V at Karachi who dismissed the grievance application of the appellant, Sultan Mahmood.

2. Sultan Mahmood was a wireman employed in the Pakistan Railways. He was initially appointed as Assistant Wireman on 13-10-1958. He demanded the allotment of Quarter No.Q/27. The said quarter was meant for the officers of higher grade. Thereafter, Quarter No.472/C was offered but the issuance of formal allotment order was delayed. There was some misunderstanding. The appellant filed a Suit No.288/79 in the Court of Senior Civil Judge No.III at Karachi and another Suit No.590/80 on behalf of his sister against the respondents. Both the suits were dismissed. It is alleged that the Railways Quarter No.472/C was not occupied by the appellant authorisedly or with permission. The appellant was awarded punishment under Efficiency and Discipline Rules and a minor penalty of stoppage of annual increment was imposed on him. The appellant remained sick for a long period and his case was referred to Chief Medical and Health Officer, Pakistan Railways, Lahore. A Medical Board was constituted. On 17-7-1980, he was examined by the Medical Board. The Medical Board opined that the appellant should continue treatment for 3 months more and then to be medically examined once again. The Medical Board consisted by qualified medical officers. The second Medical Board was held on 20-5-1981 at Karachi and the said Medical Board declared that the appellant was medically invalidated for service. The appellant made a representation, dated 26-9-1981 to the respondents. The respondents sent the reply of his grievance notice and that he was retired from service after giving the benefits and the amounts under the rules.

3. I have heard the learned counsel, namely Mr. Muhammad Ahmad, Advocate, for the appellant and Mr. A.T. Mahmood, Advocate, for the respondents. The learned Advocate for the respondents argued that the appellant was made to retire from service as the appellant was medically unfit as he was suffering from mental disease termed as Schizophrenia of Paranoid type. On this point, the appellant was examined by Surgeon Commander Muhammad Ashraf. Surgeon Ashraf has deposed that he, Dr. K. M. Ansari and Dr. S. E. Haider were members of the Medical Board constituted for the medical examination of the appellant Sultan Mahmood. The clinical history was suggestive of a mental ness termed as Schizophrenia of Paranoid type. He, therefore, issued a letter to the Railway Department. This witness is a most important witness and he was examined and he certified that the appellant was no longer fit to serve and he was declared invalidated. He also has averred that the appellant was examined on 5-5-1981 and 20-5-1981 and was found that the appellant's condition remained unchanged. The Surgeon Commander Muhammad Ashraf was of the opinion that the disease was chronic in nature and the treatment was not always satisfactorily and its ultimate progress is poor.

4. I have attentatively perused the record of the lower Court. The Paranoid kind of Schizophrenia is defined in Medical Dictionary, Twenty-fifth Edition, Dorland's illustrated, as under: ----

"a chronic, slowly progressive mental disorder, characterized by the development, of ambitions or suspicions into systematized delusions of persecution and grandeur which are built up in a logical form. Acute hallucinatory paranoia in which hallucinations are combined with the delusions."

5. The behaviour of the appellant is characterized by those acts of filing of Civil' Suits of defying the ordinary remedies and certain misconceptions with regard to his rights and liabilities. In the grievance application and in his evidence a situation narrated by the appellant that two persons accosted him and treated with a cup of tea near about the Courts. He suspected that these two characters were planted by the respondents and also he suspected that the tea they offered was containing some poison. Although the tea was not poisonous but he carried an illusion that the tea was poisonous and the two persons were planted as persons employed by the respondents to maltreat him. There is no evidence that these people never maltreated him. But, all the same he averred so in the evidence. This is symptom of delusion or hallucination or suspicion which is the product of this ailment of Schizophrenia. There is nothing in the evidence to show that any harm is done by the respondents to him by retiring him. There is a full report of the Medical Board on record.

6. The lower Court has found that his retirement was on the basis of Medical opinion and that he found that the retirement was proper and legal. I also find that the allegation made by the appellant are not on sound basis and, therefore, maintain the impugned order The appeal is accordingly dismissed.

A. E.

Appeal dismissed.

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