KARACHI, May 26: A three-member bench of the Sindh High Court referred the expelled Sindh Medical College students’ petitions to the chief justice for consideration by another full bench.
The bench, which consisted of Justices Ata-ur-Rahman, Ghulam Rabbani and Moosa K. Leghari, was assigned the petitions following divergent views taken by three division benches.
A division bench comprising Justices S. Ahmed Sarwana and M. Mujibullah Siddiqui disallowed any interim order in favour of the petitioners, saying that it would put a premium on fraud, deceit and corruption in the education sector. Another bench, comprising Justices Sarmad Jalal Osmany and Wahid Bux Brohi, had earlier allowed the third- and fourth-year students to appear in the MBBS professional exams at their own risk. The petitioners appeared in a couple of papers before the dismissal of their applications by Justices Sarwana and Siddiqui.
Yet another division bench comprising Justices Osmany and Rehmat Hussain Jaferi disposed of the fifth year students’ petitions by allowing them to take the final exam scheduled to conclude on April 20 subject to screening of their documents by the SMC principal. The bench split over an application moved by the petitioners for permission to appear in the viva voce exam held early this month.
The application was referred to a referee judge (Justice Rabbani), who asked the SMC principal to scrutinize the documents in terms of the court order and let the petitioners take the oral exam if they were found authentic. The principal found the documents false and fabricated.
A three-member bench was in the meanwhile constituted to resolve the conflict after a consolidated hearing of the pending petitions. As it assembled on Monday, Justice Rahman observed that he would soon be proceeding abroad and the case was unlikely to conclude in a day. Another judge was being assigned to a bench outside Karachi. Since no interim relief was involved, the hearing could be commenced after the summer vacation in August or the petitions could be referred to the CJ for consideration by another bench.
The petitioners’ counsel, Raja Qureshi, agreed that the case would not conclude in a day but said it should rather be referred to the CJ than adjourned until after the summer vacation. The provincial health department and the SMC were represented by Advocate-General Anwar Mansoor Khan and Additional AG Abbas Ali.
NIRC POWERS: A three-member bench of the Sindh High Court assembled on Monday to consider the power of the National Industrial Relations Commission to entertain grievances of individual workers or trade unions.
Two constitutional petitions were moved by a five-star hotel to challenge the stay order granted by the NIRC to a number of its employees against retrenchment. The hotel management said it was compelled to ‘downsize’ its workforce following a slump faced by the hotel industry caused by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the New York trade centre and their aftermath.
The employees and their union approached the NIRC for suspension of the retrenchment order under Sections 22 and 25 of the Industrial Relations Ordinance, 1969. The two petitions moved in the NIRC said the workers chosen for dismissal were mostly union activists and the management’s decision fell within the definition of unfair labour practices. The commission allowed the petitions and set aside the retrenchment order.
The two writ petitions by the hotel management against the NIRC were heard by two division benches of the high court. The bench comprising Chief Justice Saiyed Saeed Ashhad and Justice Mushir Alam held that only an industry-wide workers federation or a federation of trade unions could directly invoke the NIRC jurisdiction under the IRO. Another bench headed by Justice Sabihuddin Ahmed took a different view and the matter was referred to a three-member bench for resolution.
The full bench, which consisted of Justices S. Ahmed Sarwana, Ghulam Rabbani and Gulzar Ahmed, met on Monday and allowed the petitioner’s counsel to submit a synopsis of his arguments. Adjourning the proceedings until after the summer vacation, it asked Deputy Attorney-General and Additional Advocate-General to submit written arguments or their synopses if they so desired in the meantime.
BETEL NUTS: A division bench of the Sindh High Court has suspended the operation of a single judge’s order allowing release of contaminated betel nut consignments for uses other than human consumption.
Justice Zahid Kurban Alavi had asked the customs authorities to release the consignments to the importers so that they could be reduced to sawdust and used in manufacture of products not meant for human consumption. He said the entire operation be conducted under the supervision of government authorities so that the consignments were not ultimately used in making of ‘gutka’ etc as feared by the PMA and certain NGOs.