The burden of proving the employer-employee relationship lies on the workman, and the court cannot interfere with the Labour Court's findings unless they are perverse or based on no evidence.

JUDGMENT

Dinesh Kumar Sharma, J. (Oral):

Background Facts

1. The present writ petition has been moved by the petitioner workman impugning and seeking to set aside the order dated 07.06.2018 passed by Sh. Lokesh Kumar Sharma, Ld. Presiding Officer, Labour Court- XIX, Dwarka Courts, in L.I.R. No. 202/16, whereby the learned Labour Court held that the workman has failed to establish the existence of employer-employee relationship and therefore the question of illegal or unjustifiable termination did not arise and dismissed the statement of claim of the workman for being devoid of any merits.

2. Briefly stated the facts as alleged in the petition are that the petitioner workman joined the services of the respondent management as an Approved Part Time Foreign Language Linguist Guide in the year 2011 for around three years. Admittedly, petitioner was not issued any appointment letter.

3. The respondent management vide an email dated 25.03.2014, illegally terminated the services of the petitioner workman, without giving any notice, holding any inquiry, or assigning any valid reason.

4. Aggrieved, the petitioner workman sent a demand notice dated 01.09.2014 to the management, although no reply was received thereto. However, pursuant to receiving the aforesaid demand notice, the Management immediately released the workman's pending payments, but did not reinstate him back in service.

5. The petitioner has alleged that the management has illegally and arbitrarily terminated his service, flouting the provisions contained in the Industrial Dispute Act, 1947, and without following due process of law.

6. Petitioner workman raised an industrial dispute, in lieu of this and the following reference was framed to be adjudicated and determined:

"Whether there existed an employer employee relationship between the Management and Sh. Kaushal Kishor Singh S/o Sh. Netra Pal Singh and if so, whether services of Sh. Kaushal Kishor Singh have been terminated illegally and/or unjustifiably by the Management and if so, to what relief is he entitled?"

7. Notice of reference was issued to the workman, who then filed his statement of claim. Respondent management contested the statement of claim by filing their written statement. The management vehemently denied the existence of an employer-employee relationship between the workman and the management.

8. Ld. Labour Court passed the award [impugned herein], inter alia holding that the workman has failed to establish the existence of employer-employee relationship and therefore the question of illegal or unjustifiable termination did not arise and dismissed the statement of claim of the workman for being devoid of any merits.

Contentions of the petitioner-workman

9. Aggrieved thus, the petitioner has preferred the present writ petition on the following salient grounds:

a. Ld. Labour Court erred by not appreciating the evidence placed on record by the petitioner. These include the eight emails, duly supported by a Certificate u/s 65B of Evidence Act to show correspondence between the workman and the management [Annexures P-4 to P-10]; termination email sent by the management to the workman to show relationship of an employer & employee between the two [Annexure P17]; the four FORM Nos.16 A [Annexure P11 - P14] to show payments made for the services "hired and rendered" by the Petitioner as a Part Time German Tourist Guide; license of the petitioner issued by the Ministry of Tourism [Annexure P2] reflecting the petitioner to be an Approved Part Time German Linguistic Guide.

b. Ld. Labour Court failed to properly examine the work experience certificate [Annexure P-19] and the complaint filed by one of the tourist's, on the basis of which, the workman was allegedly illegally terminated.

c. Section 2 (s), ID Act, entails an exhaustive definition of the term `workman' and includes within its ambit any person, including an apprentice employed in any industry to do any manual, unskilled, skilled, technical, operation