IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No.21895 of 2010 Raj Kumar Vs. Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Amritsar and others Present: Mr.Vivek Salathia, Advocate, for the petitioner. ***** RANJIT SINGH, J. The petitioner has filed this writ petition to challenge the award passed by the Labour Court dated 23.12.2002 (wrongly typed as 2001 in the true copy of award placed on record). The submission is that the petitioner was not the partner of the respondent concern when this award was passed by the Labour Court. The petitioner had been inducted as a partner in the partnership concern of respondent Nos.3 & 4 on 1.12.2002. It is, thus, not possible for him to urge that he was not the partner of the concern when the Labour Court passed the award. Be that as it may, the submission is that petitioner was not aware of this award and came to learn about the same only in November, 2003. Thereafter, the petitioner had filed an application for setting-aside of the ex-parte award. In my view, the said application was wrongly entertained, though after deposit of a sum of `one lac as a bank guarantee as the Labour Court did not have any jurisdiction to entertain such application. After publication of the award, the Labour Court had become functus-officio and as such could not have entertained such an application. Ultimately, this application has been declined primarily on the said count. During the course of arguments, counsel for the petitioner has restricted his prayer to the aspect of reinstatement as directed in the award and submits that he is ready to bear the back wages. At this belated stage, challenge to the award, which was passed 8/9 years ago cannot appropriately be entertained. No ground for interference, therefore, is made out. Dismissed. December 08, 2010 ( RANJIT SINGH ) ramesh JUDGE