JUDGMENT

S.B. Sinha, J.—Leave granted.

2. The appellant herein being aggrieved by and dissatisfied with the judgment and order dated 29.4.2004 passed by a Division Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh in Civil Writ Petition No. 4988 of 2002 affirming the award dated 22.11.2001 of the Labour Court, Gurdaspur is before us. It is not in dispute that the Appellant herein is a statutory body and being a local authority, governed by the Punjab Municipal Act. The terms and conditions of service, including recruitment of its employees, are governed by statutory rules.

3. The respondent herein was appointed on 1.4.1994. He continued to work up to 31.7.1996. His services were terminated on 16.7.1997 by issuing a notice of termination. Questioning the validity and legality thereof, an industrial dispute was raised which culminated in a reference made by the appropriate governments under Industrial Disputes Act (‘the Act’) in exercise of its power under Section 10(1)(c) thereof the following dispute to the Labour Court, Gurdaspur:

“Whether termination of services of Shri Surinder Kumar, workman is justified and in order? If not, to what/exact amount of compensation is he entitl