KESHAVJI RAVJIBHAI PATEL Vs. JIVRAJ AND CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present petition has been filed by the petitioner Keshavji Ravjibhai Patel under Article 227 of the Constitution of India challenging the Award passed by the Labour Court, Rajkot in Reference No.1825 of 1987 dtd.12/5/1994 whereby the Labour Court rejected the reference filed by the petitioner.

(2.) Brief facts of the case are such that the petitioner was working in the office of the respondent No.1 from 22/9/1951 at the monthly salary of Rs.750/p.m. As per the case of the petitioner, the petitioner has served in the office of the respondent from 22/5/1961 to 1/7/1987 and his service has been terminated by the respondent without following mandatory procedure, illegally and arbitrarily. The petitioner therefore wrote a letter dtd.10/7/1987 to the respondent requesting to reinstate the petitioner, but the respondent refused the request of the petitioner and therefore, the petitioner raised a dispute before the Labour Court, Rajkot against his illegal termination. The petitioner submitted his statement of claim before the Labour Court and reply was given by the respondent vide Ex.10. According to the respondent, they are working as Income-tax Consultant which is a legal profession and therefore, under sec.2(J) of the Act, their profession is not covered within the meaning of Industry and therefore, the Labour Court has no jurisdiction to decide or adjudicate the dispute filed by the petitioner before the Assistant Labour Commissioner. The respondent also raised a contention that the service of the petitioner was not terminated but he abandoned the service and did not turned up for service from 6/6/1987 and therefore, the respondent has not terminated the service of the petitioner. The petitioner submitted documentary evidence before the Labour Court vide Ex.11 and the respondent submitted documentary evidence vide Ex.123. The petitioner was examined vide Ex.37 and the witness of the respondent was examined vide Ex.46.Considering the evidence on record and judgement of Hon'ble Apex Court in reported in 1978 (1) LLJ 404 and other judgements, the Labour Court come to the conclusion that the legal profession is not covered within definition of Industry and therefore, provisions of Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 are not applicable to the legal profession and therefore mainly on that ground the Labour Court rejected the reference filed by the petitioner.

(3.) Heard Mr.M.H. Rathod, learned counsel for the petitioner and Ms.Yamini Desai, on behalf of Mr.YS Lakhani, learned counsel for the respondent.