Violation of Section 25(F) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 renders the termination void ab initio, entitling the employee to reinstatement and compensation.

The petitioner-workman has approached this Court by invoking extra ordinary jurisdiction under Article 226/227 of the Constitution of India, for quashing the part of the Award dated 22.11.2011 (Annexure P-2), whereby, the petitioner has been denied the relief of reinstatement with all consequential benefits but only a compensation of Rs. 10,000/- has been awarded.

2. The workman has raised her grievance on the premise that she was employed as Mali with the respondent-Management on compassionate ground and joined services of respondent-Management as Mali on 1.6.2000 and continuously worked upto 3.7.2001 when her services were illegally terminated on 4.7.2001 without serving any notice or charge sheet. At the time of termination, she was drawing a salary Rs. 1800/- per month. The workman on account of her illegal termination, raised an industrial dispute and the matter was referred to the Presiding Officer, Industrial Tribunal, Ludhiana. Before the Industrial Tribunal, respondent-Management heavily placed reliance on circular dated 1.6.2001, a copy of which has been annexed as Annexure P-4, to contend that in view of the circular issued by the Government of Punjab, the services of the workman was terminated with immediate effect. For the sake of brevity, circular dated 1.6.2001 (Annexure P-4) is extracted herein below:-

"No. 9/134/2001-FD (BPE)SO-III/1261-1300

GOVERNMENT OF PUNJAB

DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE

DIRECTORATE OF INSTITUTIONAL FINANCE & BANKING AND

PUBLIC ENTERPRISE, SCO 53-55/17-D, CHANDIGARH

Dated: 1.6.2001

1. All the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officers of the Public sector Undertakings/Apex Cooperative Institutions/Board/Authorities of the State of Punjab.

2. All Administrative Secretaries concerned.

Subject: Ban on Contractual/Daily Wage Appointments.

Kindly refer to the subject cited above.

2. It has come to the notice that some of the PSUs have been violating the established recruitment/selection procedures by devising a novel method to circumvent the established procedures/Punjab Govt. Policy Instructions and started making appointments on Contract Basis. Such contractual appointments are sought to be converted into regular ones after passage of some time. Moreover, such contractual employees appointed against regular vacancies get regularized through legal battles in view of the provisions under certain status.

3. The State Govt. has considered the matter and has viewed such violations seriously. In view of this the following policy directive are issued to be effective forthwith:

(i) Henceforth, no contractual/daily wage appointments shall be made by any corporation, Board or Apex Cooperative Institutions and their subsidiaries without prior permission of the Finance Department. Wherever, such powers are vested with the functionaries of the PSUs or Apex Cooperative Institutions, through the Bye- laws, the said Bye-laws may be modified forthwith.

(ii) Whenever contractual appointments have been made earlier in contravention of Govt. Policy guidelines, from time to time, the same should be dispensed with immediately. Any contractual appointment which is likely to assume the character of regular appointment, due to the provisions under statutes like Industrial Dispute Act, 1948 and Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act, 1970 should be dispensed with on priority.

(iii) If administrative exigencies and public interest so demands, the public sector Undertakings/Apex Cooperative institutions may hire experts/specialists for specific works, whose appointment would be for the completion of that work only but following Rules, which may be framed with the concurrence of FD.

4. The above instructions should be followed by each Public Sector undertakings/Apex Cooperative Institution and their subsidiaries scrupulously. Any violation of such instructions will be the personal responsibility of the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of these entities.

5. The details of appointments on daily wage/muster rolls/contr