Chief Engineer, Hydel Project & Ors vs Ravinder Nath & Ors

4. This claim was contested by the State of Punjab. It was firstly urged that the suit was bad as common suit could not have been filed since the cause of action of each defendant was distinct and separate. It was urged that the plaintiffs-respondents were appointed on purely temporary basis as work-charged employees and after the completion of the project, their services were validly terminated as per Rule 20(1) read with Rule 3(a) of the Certified Standing Orders for the work-charged staff on the said Project. Since the termination was complete on payment of necessary gratuity etc., there can be no cause of action and as such the present suit was not maintainable in the present form. It was also urged that notice under Section 80 CPC was not given and the suit was also barred by limitation. It was reiterated that the principle of first come last go was strictly observed since there was a regular seniority-list maintained for the Project as a whole and that there was no discrimination or victimization. On merits also the suit was opposed on the ground that since the plaintiffs- respondent were work-charged employees for a work of temporary nature, on completion of the project their services were terminated as per the Rules which governed their service conditions (the Certified Standing Orders). The following issues were framed in between the parties by the Court:

7. The matter was taken before the High Court by way of a Second Appeal on various grounds. To begin with the High Court granted stay of the operation of the orders passed by the courts below. However, by the subsequent order, the stay application was dismissed and the said order granted on 20.12.1991 was vacated. This came to be challenged by way of a Special Leave Petition before this Court. In the Special Leave Petition a contention was raised by way of Ground (8) that the Civil Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suit since the relief of reinstatement in the present case was available only under the Industrial Disputes Act. This Court, however, did not interfere at that stage and directed the High Court to dispose of the Second Appeal as expeditiously as possible. The High Court dismissed the Second Appeal necessitating the present appeal before us.

19. Once the original decree itself has been held to be without jurisdiction and hit by the doctrine of coram non judice, there would be no question of upholding the same merely on the ground that the objection to the jurisdiction was not taken at the initial, First Appellate or the Second Appellate stage. It must, therefore, be held that the civil court in this case had no jurisdiction to deal with the suit and resultantly the judgments of the Trial Court, First Appellate Court and the Second Appellate Court are liable to be set aside for that reason alone and the appeal is liable to be allowed. In view of this verdict of ours, we have deliberately not chosen to go into the other contentions raised on merits. We, however, make it clear that we have not, in any manner, commented upon the rights of the plaintiffs- respondents, if any, arising out of the Labour Jurisprudence.

20. In the result the appeal is allowed but without any order as to costs.