MUSLIM COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED vs PUNJAB LABOUR APPELLATE TRIBUNAL through Chairman, Lahore S

Fields are extracted from the reported citation and judgment text. Where a detail is not stated in the record, it is not shown.

MUSLIM COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED VS PUNJAB LABOUR APPELLATE TRIBUNAL through Chairman, Lahore S. 57(5)---Trans-provincial establishment---Forum of appeal---National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC), jurisdiction of---Exclusion of jurisdiction of Labour Court and Labour Appellate Tribunal---Industrial Relations Act, 2012 ("IRA") is applicable only to the employees and entrepreneurs of trans-provincial establishments, while after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the provinces have also promulgated their local labour laws, including those relating to industrial relations, and in case of any grievance, the aggrieved person may approach the Labour Courts as per the prescribed procedure---If dissatisfied with an order of a Labour Court, they may file an appeal to the Labour Appellate Tribunal, but not to the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC)---In the present case, since the petitioner was a trans-provincial establishment, the matters were previously being handled by the Labour Court before the promulgation of the IRA---However, pending adjudication of the appeal before the Punjab Labour Appellate Tribunal, a special industrial relations law was promulgated for trans-provincial establishments whereby a procedural change was made in the choice of forum of appeal, applicable not to new cases but to those pending in Labour Courts or the Labour Appellate Tribunal for the establishments/organizations included and covered in the definition of trans-provincial establishments in the IRA---Consequently, from the effective date, the jurisdiction of Provincial Labour Courts and the Labour Appellate Tribunal for the employees of trans-provincial establishment stood excluded for all intents and purposes---Punjab Labour Appellate Tribunal decided the appeal of the petitioner on 13.03.2013, when the IRA was very much in the field, having come into force on 14.3.2012---Therefore, taking into consideration Subsection (5) of Section 57 of the IRA, no Labour Court or Labour Appellant Tribunal could have taken the cognizance in respect of any matter which was well within the exclusive jurisdiction of the NIRC---Industrial Relations Act has an overriding effect on all provincial labour laws---Despite these unambiguous and non-complex legal barricades, the Labour Tribunal, instead of acknowledging its lack of jurisdiction as an appellate forum in the cases of trans-provincial establishments, dismissed the appeal rather than returning the memo of appeal for presentation before the competent forum---Any order or decision passed without jurisdiction would be coram non judice and thus a nullity---If a mandatory condition for exercise of jurisdiction by a court is not fulfilled, then the entire proceeding which follows becomes illegal and suffers from want of jurisdiction---Petition was converted into appeal and allowed; consequently, the order passed by the Punjab Labour Appellate Tribunal, and the impugned judgment passed by the High Court, both were set aside with the directions to the Punjab Labour Appellate Tribunal to return the original memo/ file of Labour Appeal to the duly authorized representative of the petitioner for its immediate institution and decision by the Full Bench of the NIRC on merits, and in accordance with law, after providing ample opportunity of hearing to the parties.

MUSLIM COMMERCIAL BANK LIMITED vs PUNJAB LABOUR APPELLATE TRIBUNAL through Chairman, Lahore S — 2025 SCMR 303 SUPREME-COURT

Case information

Judgment text as reported

Other judgments reported in 2025 SCMR