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A Supreme Court bench of Justices R. Subhash Reddy and Hrishikesh Roy has held that a civil court lacks jurisdiction to entertain a suit structured on the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act.

These observations were made in an appeal filed by a daily wage employee under the Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board whose service was dispensed with by  an order issued by the Executive Engineer in 1985.

This order was challenged in a Civil Suit wherein the instant appellant claimed to have rendered uninterrupted service for 2778 days and asserted the right to be regularized after completion of 240 days of continuous service.

The civil court answered in favour of the appellant while referring to the provisions of Section 25B and 25F of the ID Act and noted that the plaintiff had rendered service for well above 240 days in one year and therefore his service could not have been terminated without complying with the statutory requirement.

A challenge was then made to this order by the Board before the the District Judge, Dharamshala which questioned the jurisdiction of civil court but observed that the question of jurisdiction was a mixed question of law and facts and since the litigation was continuing for long, it would not be proper to relegate the plaintiff to the labour court.

It opined that the workman was entitled to choose the remedy either before the civil court or before the Industrial Court.

As the service of a daily wager was terminated, the same was treated by the District Judge to be a retrenchment without compliance with Section 25F of the ID Act, who also upheld the reinstatement by rejecting the jurisdictional objection raised by the Board.

When the appellant applied for execution of the decree, the executing court negated the Board’s objection that since all back wages were paid to the decree holder and he was also offered the post of LDC but since the decree holder gave a conditional joining report and was required to re-submit a joining report as per rules, nothing further was required to be done for execution of the decree and allowed the relief prayed for.

The Board challenged this execution order before the Himachal Pradesh High Court stating that the civil court had no jurisdiction to adjudicate a claim arising out of the ID Act and relief for the aggrieved employee could have been granted, only by the industrial court.

It was further contended that plea of absence of jurisdiction can be raised at any stage and the present decree is a legal nullity.

The High Court Judge referred to the judgments in Rajasthan SRTC & Ors. vs. Khadarmal and Rajasthan SRTC & Anr. vs. Ugma Ram Choudhry to hold that the civil court lacked inherent jurisdiction to entertain the suit based on the ID Act and the judgment and decree so passed, were nullity. It was further observed that the plea of decree being a nullity can also be raised at the stage of execution.

The issue that arose for the consideration of the Court was whether the suit before the civil court at the instance of the terminated employee, was maintainable.

The bench noted that the authorities specified under the ID Act including the appropriate government and the industrial courts perform various functions and the ID Act provides for a wider definition of “termination of service”, the condition precedent of termination of service.

With this view it was held that:

"...the challenge to the termination was founded on the provisions of the ID Act. Although jurisdictional objection was raised and a specific issue was framed at the instance of the employer, the issue was answered against the defendant. This Court is unable to accept the view propounded by the courts below and is of the considered opinion that the civil court lacks jurisdiction to entertain a suit structured on the provisions of the ID Act. The decree favouring the plaintiff is a legal nullity and the finding of the High Court to this extent is upheld."

Cause Title: Milkhi Ram v. Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board

Click here to access a copy of the Judgment.