Civil Writ Petition No. 9350 of 2003 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 9350 of 2003 Date of decision:-03.08.2011 Chander Prakash ...Petitioner Versus State of Haryana and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MS. JUSTICE RITU BAHRI Present:- Mr. Ram Kumar Saini, Advocate for Mr. R.N. Lohan, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. D.S. Nalwa, Addl.A.G. Haryana. RITU BAHRI J.(Oral) Challenge is to the order dated 23.12.2002 (Annexure P-3) whereby the Special Secretary to Government of Haryana, Labour Department, Chandigarh has not sent the reference to the Industrial Tribunal-cum-Labour Court under Section 2(i) of the Industrial Disputes Act on the ground that the dispute has been raised after six years. As per the demand notice (Annexure P-1) the workman was employed as Driver on daily wages on 14.10.1992 and continued till May 1996. When his services were terminated in 2002 he had filed a civil suit, which was withdrawn for availing remedy under the Industrial Disputes Act. Mr. D.S. Nalwa, Addl.A.G. Haryana has referred to the judgment of the Supreme Court in Nedungadi Bank Limited versus K.P. Madhavankutty and others (2000) 2 Supreme Court Cases 455 to contend that “the purpose of reference is to keep industrial peace in an establishment. Civil Writ Petition No. 9350 of 2003 -2- The present reference is destructive to the industrial peace and defeats the very object and purpose of the Act.” The said rule has been followed by the Supreme Court in State of Karnataka and another versus Ravi Kumar (2010) 1 Supreme Court Cases (L & S) 295. In the present case the services of the petitioner were retrenched in the year 1996. It is not expected that the Department should have sufficient evidence after a lapse of 15 years to substantiate the case of the petitioner. No merits. Dismissed. August 03, 2011 ( RITU BAHRI ) Vijay Asija JUDGE