IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.4540 of 1999 Date of decision: 13.08.2009 M/s Sandhu Nickle House …Petitioner versus The Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Amritsar and another .....Respondents CORAM: HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE K.KANNAN Present: Mr. Baldev Raj Mahajan, Advocate, for the petitioner. None for the respondent. ----- 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 ? K.Kannan, J.(Oral) 1. The award in challenge is one which was passed ex parte on the failure of the management to appear on the date of hearing. The plea was that the management had not been served with notice and they came to know about the alleged ex parte award and its publication on 19.09.1995, only when the workman sought for execution of the award. It was the contention on behalf of the management by the learned counsel that even before the Conciliation Officer before the reference was made, the management had offered to take him back on a plea that they had never dismissed him from service and that only the workman was absenting himself. The workman was reported to have started the same business which the management was doing and therefore, he was not interested in joining duty and the reference was ultimately made only Civil Writ Petition No.4540 of 1999 - 2 - when the workman did not accept even bona fide offer from the management. 2. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that even before the Labour Court some persons had offered to appear on behalf of the management and sought time on two-three occasions, but did not file a statement. Subsequently, the award had been passed setting the management ex parte. It was his contention that no vakalatanama had been given to any person to represent the management. From the Labour Court’s record, I find that summons had not been served and nobody had filed vakalatanama for the management. It is eminently a fit case where the ex parte award has to be set aside. The Labour Court is requested to take up the case for adjudication and dispose it as expeditiously as possible preferably within a period of six months from the date of receipt of records. 3. The award of the Labour Court is set aside and the writ petition is allowed. For appearance of the parties before the Labour Court at Amritsar, on 15.09.2009. (K.KANNAN) JUDGE 13.08.2009 sanjeev