IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.6183 of 2011 Date of Decision : October 13, 2011. M/s Par Exports .....Petitioner versus Suman Bala and another .....Respondents CORAM : HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE SURYA KANT. Present : Mr.Manoj Kaushik, Advocate, for the petitioner. -.- 1. Whether Reporters of Local papers may be allowed to see the judgment? 2. To be referred to the Reporters or not? 3. Whether the judgment should be reported in the Digest? --- Surya Kant, J. (Oral) The petitioner-Management is aggrieved by the Award dated 24.1.2011 (Annexure P-1) passed by the Labour Court-I, Gurgaon reinstating respondent No.1 in service with 50% back wages. The brief facts are that respondent No.1 joined the petitioner- College as a Checker on 1.11.1986 and her services were alleged to be illegally terminated on 16.9.2004. The Management though had not issued any appointment letter to the work-lady, however, her employment with the petitioner-Management was amply proved by producing the salary slips like Exhibits P-2 to P-4. The 1st respondent raised an industrial dispute alleging that her services were terminated without complying with the CWP No.6183 of 2011 [2] mandatory provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, even though she had worked for more than 240 days preceding her illegal retrenchment. The engagement or retrenchment of the workman was not broadly disputed by the petitioner-Management though it took a plea of abandonment of job by her. The parties led their oral as well as documentary evidence and on consideration thereof, the Labour Court discarded the plea taken by the Management and has held that respondent No.1 was illegally retrenched, after observing as follows:- “......13. In view of above law laid down by Hon'ble Supreme Court of India and facts of this case, petitioner has been able to prove that she had worked for a period of more than 240 days and her services were terminated in an illegal manner without issuance of any show cause notice, charge-sheet or payment of retrenchment compensation. The plea of abandonment of service by the petitioner not proved by the Mgt.rather petitioner proved that she had worked with the Mgt. since 1.11.1986 till 16.9.2004 and her services were illegally terminated. So, she is entitled to reinstatement in service of respondent with back wages to the extent of 50% on the basis of last drawn salary as she remained unemployed since the date of her termination and both these issues are decided in favour of the workman and against the Mgt......” The aggrieved Management has approached this Court. I have heard learned counsel for the petitioner at some length and perused the impugned Award. CWP No.6183 of 2011 [3] There is overwhelming documents on record to establish that respondent No.1 was engaged as Checker by the petitioner-Management on 1.11.1986. This fact has been admitted by the Management's witness Sanjay Bhel (MW-1) also. Rajender Yadav (MW-2), an official from the ESI Department brought the relevant records and proved the fact that the 1st respondent was covered under the ESI Scheme vide Exhibit MW-2/1. Similarly, Sunil Kumar Jha (MW-3) who was summoned from the Provident Fund Department also brought the relevant records and proved that the work-lady was having Provident Fund No.HR/FD/10678022. The evasive plea taken by the petitioner-Management that she abandoned the employment is ex-facie unbelievable for the reasons that having served the petitioner-Management for about 18 years, there is no rhyme or reason for respondent No.1 to abandon the employment, morso when it is not proved that she got some better employment. In these circumstances, the finding of fact returned by the learned Labour Court that the first respondent was illegally retrenched calls for no interference by this Court. Similarly, having regard to the length of service, the award of 50% back wages cannot be said to be on the higher side. No case to interfere with the impugned Award is made out by this Court in exercise of its writ jurisdiction. Dismissed. October 13, 2011 (SURYA KANT) Mohinder JUDGE