( IX of
1974)
[20th June, 1974]
An
Act
to provide for the establishment of [3]Service Tribunals to exercise jurisdiction
regarding matters
relating to the terms
and conditions of service in respect of services of the Province of the Punjab
Preamble.— WHEREAS it is expedient to provide for the establishment of [4]Service
Tribunals to exercise exclusive jurisdiction regarding the matters relating to
the terms and conditions of service in respect of the services of the Province
of the Punjab and for matters connected therewith or ancillary thereto; It is
hereby enacted as follows:-
1.
Short title,
commencement and application.— (1) This Act may be called the Punjab [5]Service
Tribunals Act, 1974.
(2)
It shall come into force at once.
(3)
It applies to all civil servants wherever they may be.
2.
Definitions.—
In this Act, unless there is anything repugnant in the subject or context,— (a) “Chairman” means the Chairman of the Tribunal;
(b) “civil
servant” means a person who is or who has been a member of a civil service of
the Province or holds or has held a civil post in connection with the affairs
of the Province but does not include—
(i)
a person who is or who has been on deputation to the
Province from the Federation or any other Province or authority;
(ii)
a person who is or has been employed on contract, or on
work-charged basis, or who is or has been paid from contingencies; or
(iii) a
person who is or has been a ‘worker’ or ‘workman’ as defined in the Factories
Act, 1934 (XXV of 1934) or the
Workmen’s Compensation Act, 1923 (VIII of 1923) ;
(c)
“Government” means the Government of the Punjab;
(d)
“Governor” means the Governor of the Punjab;
(e)
“Member” means the Member of the Tribunal;
(f)
“Registrar” means the Registrar of a Tribunal and
includes any other person authorised by a Tribunal to perform the functions and
duties of the Registrar; and (g) “Tribunal” means a [6]Service
Tribunal established by this Act, or a Bench thereof.
[7]3. Tribunals.— (1) The Governor may, by
notification in the official Gazette, establish one or more Service Tribunals
and, where there are established more than one Tribunals, the Governor shall
specify in the notification the class or classes of civil servants in respect
of whom and the territorial limits within which or the class or classes of
cases in respect of which, each such Tribunal shall exercise jurisdiction under
this Act.
(2) The Tribunal
shall have exclusive jurisdiction in respect of matters relating to the terms
and conditions of service of civil servants, including disciplinary matters.
[8][(3) A Tribunal shall consist of—
(a)
the Chairman, being a person who has been or is
qualified to be a Judge of the High Court and is not more than sixty three
years of age on the date of appointment; and
(b)
such number of Members as the Government may determine,
and a Member shall be a person who is– (i) a District Judge; or
(ii)
in the service of Pakistan of the rank of Secretary to
the Government (or equivalent) and who has performed quasi-judicial functions
or functions relating to service matters of civil servants; or
(iii)
a person qualified for appointment as Judge of a High
Court, in case the persons mentioned at (i) and (ii) above are not available.
(4)
Subject to this section, the Governor shall, in
consultation with the Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, in the manner
mentioned hereinafter, appoint the Chairman and the Members on such terms and
conditions as may be prescribed and, until so prescribed, as the Government may
determine.
(4a) In case of appointment of the
Chairman, the Government shall send a panel of three persons to the Chief
Justice of Lahore High Court and the Chief Justice shall recommend a person in
the panel for appointment as Chairman.
(4b) In the case
of appointment of a Member–
(i)
for a position mentioned in section 3(b)(i), Chief
Justice of Lahore High Court, on a requisition from the Government, shall send
a panel of two District Judges to the Government and the Government shall
select one of the names for appointment as Member;
(ii)
for a position mentioned in section 3(b)(ii), the
Government shall send a panel of two persons to Chief Justice of Lahore High
Court and the Chief Justice shall recommend a person in the panel for
appointment as Member; and
(iii)
for a position mentioned in section 3(b)(iii), the
Government shall send a panel of two persons to the Chief Justice of Lahore
High Court and the Chief Justice shall recommend a person in the panel for
appointment as Member.]
(5)
The Chairman or a member of a Tribunal may resign his
office by writing under his hand addressed to the Governor.
(6)
The Chairman or a member of a Tribunal shall not hold
any other office of profit in the service of Pakistan if his remuneration is
thereby increased.
(7)
Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3),
sub-section (4), sub-section (5), or sub-section (6), a Tribunal established to
exercise jurisdiction in respect of a specified class or classes of cases, may
consist of one or more persons in the service of Pakistan to be appointed by
the Governor.]
2[3-A.
Constitution of Benches.— [9][(1)
Notwithstanding anything contained in section 3, the Chairman may constitute a
Bench consisting of one or more Members including the Chairman but a Bench,
other than a Bench consisting of the Chairman, shall include at least one
Member with legal or judicial experience and the Bench so constituted shall be
deemed to be a Tribunal:
Provided that
where a single Member Bench is to be constituted, preference shall be given to
the Member having legal or judicial experience.]
(2)
If a Bench is unable to arrive at a unanimous decision
in an appeal, the matter shall be placed before the full Tribunal and the
decision of the Tribunal shall be expressed in terms of the opinion of the
majority:
Provided that if
the Chairman or the member who was not already on the Bench cannot be
associated or is unable for any reason to take part in the hearing of the
appeal, the decision of the Tribunal shall be expressed in terms of the opinion
of the senior member of the Bench.
(3)
The Chairman may, at any stage of hearing of an appeal,
withdraw it from the Tribunal and entrust it to a Bench or may withdraw any
appeal pending before a Bench and make it over to another Bench or to the
Tribunal.]
[10][4. Appeal to Tribunals.— (1) Any civil
servant aggrieved by any final order, whether original or appellate, made by a
departmental authority in respect of any of the terms and conditions of his
service may, within thirty days of the communication of such order to him or within
six months of the establishment of the appropriate Tribunal, whichever is
latter prefer an appeal to the Tribunal―
Provided that—
(a)
where an appeal, review or representation to a
departmental authority is provided under the Punjab Civil Servants Act, 1974,
or any rules against any such order no appeal shall lie to a Tribunal unless
the aggrieved civil servant has preferred an appeal or application for review
or representation to such departmental authority and a period of ninety days
has elapsed from the date on which such appeal, application or representation
was so preferred;
(b)
no appeal shall lie to a Tribunal against an order or
decision of a departmental authority determining the fitness or otherwise of a
person to be appointed to, or hold a particular post or to be promoted to a
higher grade; and
(c)
no appeal shall lie to a Tribunal against an order or
decision of a departmental authority made at any time before the 1st July,
1969.
(2) Where the appeal is against an order or
decision of a departmental authority imposing a departmental punishment or
penalty on a civil servant, the appeal shall be preferred—
(a)
in the case of a penalty of dismissal from service,
removal from service, compulsory retirement or reduction to a lower post or
time-scale or to a lower stage in a timescale to a Tribunal referred to in
sub-section (3) of section 3; and
(b)
in any other case, to a Tribunal referred to in
sub-section (7) of section 3 and where no such Tribunal is established, to a
Tribunal established under sub-section (3) of that section.
Explanation—
In this section “departmental authority” means any authority, other than a
Tribunal which is competent to make an order in respect of any of the terms and
conditions of civil servants.]
5. Powers of
Tribunals.— (1) A Tribunal may, on appeal, confirm, set aside, vary or
modify the order appealed against.
(2)
A Tribunal shall, for the purpose of deciding any
appeal, be deemed to be a civil court and shall have the same powers as are
vested in such court under the Code of Civil
Procedure, 1908 (Act V of 1908) including the powers of—
(a)
enforcing the attendance of any person and examining
him on oath;
(b)
compelling the production of documents; and
(c)
issuing commission for the examination of witnesses and
documents.
(3)
No court-fee shall be payable for preferring an appeal
to, or filing, exhibiting or recording any document in, or obtaining any
document from a Tribunal.
[11][6. Removal of the Chairman or a Member.–
(1) The Government may remove the Chairman or relieve a Member, during the
tenure of his office, on the ground of misconduct or, physical or mental
incapacity.
(2)
The Government shall, before removing or relieving the
Chairman or the Member, provide an opportunity of hearing to the Chairman or
the Member.
(3)
The Chairman or the Member may, within fifteen days
from the date of the order of removal or relieving, prefer an appeal before the
Lahore High Court.
(4)
The appeal mentioned in subsection (3) shall be heard
and decided by a Division Bench of Lahore High Court within thirty days and if
the High Court fails to decide the appeal within thirty days of filing the
appeal, the appeal shall abate and the decision of the Government shall become
final.
(5)
Without prejudice to any other action under the law,
the Government shall communicate to the appointing authority the circumstances
in which the Chairman or the Member was relieved before the expiry of the term
of three years and the appointing authority may take appropriate necessary
action under the law.]
[12][7. Financial Powers.– (1) The Chairman
shall be the Principal Accounting Officer of the Tribunal.
(2) The Chairman may re-appropriate funds
from one head of account to another head of account or sanction expenditure
from within the budget allocated to the Tribunal and approval of the Government
for the purpose shall not be required.]
8.
Abatement of
suits and other proceedings.— All suits, appeals and applications regarding
any matter within the jurisdiction of a Tribunal pending in any court
immediately before the establishment of the appropriate Tribunal shall abate on
the establishment of such Tribunal:
Provided that
any party to such a suit, appeal or application may, within ninety days of
establishment of the appropriate Tribunal, prefer an appeal to it in respect of
any such matter which is in issue in such suit, appeal or application.
9.
Applicability
of the provisions of the Limitation Act, 1908.— The provisions of sections
5 and 12 of the Limitation Act, 1908 (IX
of 1908), shall apply to appeals under this Act.
[14][11. Rules.– The Government may, by notification
in the official Gazette, may make rules for carrying out the purposes of this
Act, including the rules for purposes of implementation of the decisions of the
Tribunal.]
12. [15][*****]
[16][*****]
[1] This Act was passed by the
Punjab Assembly on 5th June, 1974; assented to by the Governor of
the Punjab on 20th June, 1974; and, published in the Punjab
Gazette (Extraordinary), dated 20th June, 1974 (pages 865 to 880).
[2] Substituted by the Punjab
Administrative Tribunals (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XXVI of 1975), for
“Administrative”.
[3] Ibid
[4]
Ibid
[5] Ibid
[6] Ibid
[7] Substituted by the Punjab
Administrative Tribunals (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XXVI of 1975).
[8] Substituted by the Punjab
Service Tribunals (Amendment) Act 2013 (XVII of 2013), effective from 22nd
July 2013. 2 Added by the Punjab Service Tribunals (Amendment) Ordinance,
1980 (II of 1980).
[9] Substituted by the Punjab
Service Tribunals (Amendment) Act 2013 (XVII of 2013), effective from 22nd July 2013.
[10] Substituted by the Punjab
Administrative Tribunals (Amendment) Act, 1975 (XXVI of 1975).
[11]
Previous Section 6 “Benches and their
Procedure” was omitted by the Punjab Administrative Tribunals (Amendment)
Act, 1975 (XXXI of 1975), and the present Section 6 was inserted by the Punjab
Service Tribunals (Amendment) Act 2013 (XVII of 2013) effective from 22nd
July 2013.
[12]
Previous Section 7 “Casual Vacancy”
was omitted by the Punjab Administrative Tribunals (Amendment) Act 1975 (XXXI
of 1975) and the present Section 7 was inserted by the Punjab Service Tribunals
(Amendment) Act 2013 (XVII of 2013) effective from 22nd
July 2013.
[13]
Section 10. “Repeal and transfer of cases” omitted by the Punjab Service
Tribunals (Amendment) Act 2013 (XVII of 2013) effective from 22 nd July
2013.
[14] Substituted ibid.
[15] Section 12. “Repeal of Punjab Ordinance No.V of 1974” omitted ibid.
[16] The First Schedule and
the Second Schedule omitted ibid.
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