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Petitioner: WATER AND POWER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY and 2 others VS Respondent: ABDUL KHALIQ
Court Name: Supreme Court of Pakistan Judge(s): Sajjad Ali Shah, Muhammad Rafique Tarar Title: WATER AND POWER DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY and 2 others vs ABDUL KHALIQ Case No.: Civil Petition No. 292-L of 1993 Appeal No. 43(L) of 1991 Date of Judgment:1994-05-03 Reported As: 1996 SCMR 940 Result: Case remanded
Judgment ORDER SAJJAD ALI SHAH, J.---By this petition leave is sought against judgment dated 29-12-1992 of Federal Service Tribunal, whereby service appeal filed by respondent against his dismissal is allowed to the extent of conversion of penalty to stoppage of two increments with direction to reinstate him in service. Perusal of the impugned judgment shows that respondent was charge-sheeted for remaining absent for 9 days and for that reason was dismissed. The Service Tribunal has reduced the penalty to stoppage of two increments as contemplated under Rules 5(A) of the Pakistan WAPDA Employees (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules. 2. On behalf of Water and Power Development Authority, learned counsel stated that he was unable to appear before the Tribunal on the date of hearing and had sent an application for adjournment, which was not granted and hearing took place in his absence. In that connection affidavit is filed by the learned counsel in this Court which is on the record and in it this fact is mentioned that counsel was in Karachi in connection with his professional duties and was unable to reach Lahore on the date when hearing of appeal took place before the Tribunal and he sent application for adjournment which was rejected. 3. Another objection raised by the counsel for the petitioner is that service appeal was barred by 106 days and such objection with regard to limitation had been taken in the written statement filed before the Tribunal but it received no attention from the Tribunal as is apparent from the judgment. It is submitted that waiver of question of limitation is not permitted and duty is cast upon the Court to determine the question of limitation first. In support of the proposition, reliance is placed on the case of Hakim Muhammad Buta and another v. Habib Ahmed and others (PLD 1985 SC 153).
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3-A. For aforementioned reasons, feeling satisfied with the contentions raised, we grant leave and convert this petition into appeal and set aside the impugned judgment and remand the case to the Tribunal for determination of question of limitation and disposal on merits afresh after hearing the parties.