STATE OF RAJASTHAN Vs. SHIV RAJ SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India has been filed by the petitioners against the respondents with a prayer that by an appropriate writ, order or direction the order dtd. 21. 3. 2002 by which the learned Labour Court (respondent No. 2) ordered exparte proceedings against the petitioners and the order dtd. 1. 11. 2002 (Annex. 4) passed by the learned Labour Court (respondent No. 2) by which the application of the petitioners for setting aside exparte proceedings was dismissed be quashed and set aside.

(2.) THE facts as put forward by the petitioners are as under: i) That the State Government vide notification dtd. 25. 7. 2001 made a reference to the respondent No. 2 (Labour Court, Jodhpur) to the effect whether termination of services of respondent No. 1 (Shiv Raj Singh) with effect from 1. 6. 93 was proper or not. ii) That on receipt of the reference, a case was registered and notices were issued to the parties. iii) That on 4. 12. 2001, Prem Chand, LDC appeared on behalf of the petitioners and sought time to file reply. iv) That due to some reasons, on 21. 3. 2002, none could appear on behalf of the petitioners and thus, exparte proceedings were ordered to be initiated against the petitioners. v) Further case of the petitioners is that on 17. 8. 2002 (Annex. 3), an application (Annex. 3) was moved on behalf of petitioners for setting aside order dtd. 21. 3. 2002 whereby exparte proceedings were ordered against the petitioners but the application (Annex. 3) filed by the petitioners was dismissed by the learned trial Court through order dtd. 1. 11. 2002 and the orders dtd. 21. 3. 2002 and 1. 11. 2002 have been challenged in this writ petition.

(3.) EVEN if the party was remiss in complying with the directions of the court, the matter could have been restored on payment of cost. Refusal to restore a matter is bound to result in a meritorious matter being thrown out and the cause of justice will be defeated. The Apex Court in Collector Land Acquisition vs. Mst. Katiji & Ors. (1), has observed, thus : " It must be grasped that judiciary is respected not on account of its power to legalize injustice on technical ground but it is capable of removing injustice and is expected to do so. "