KARACHI: The Sindh High Court (SHC) has imposed a fine on the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIA) for filing frivolous applications seeking review of an earlier order.

Comprising Justice Muhammad Junaid Ghaffar and Justice Agha Faisal, the two-judge bench dismissed the review applications with costs of Rs25,000 each for being frivolous and devoid of merit, and directed the petitioner/applicant to deposit the same in the account of the SHC clinic.

The PIA had filed petitions in 2022, assailing respective interlocutory orders rendered by the National Industrial Relat­i­ons Commission (NIRC) and the SHC had dismissed the same in November 2022.

Thereafter, the bench noted that the petitioner preferred review applications ostensibly beyond the pale of limitation in January 2023.

The dismissal of the petitions was inter alia predicated upon the observation that since the governing law, Industrial Relations Act (IRA) 2012, contained no provision of appeal in respect of interlocutory orders, thus the same could not be construed to automatically become assailable in writ jurisdiction, it added.

The lawyer for the applicant argued that Section 58(2) of IRA did contain a provision to assail interlocutory orders and upon being requested to identify the relevant constituent in the provision, he submitted that a copy of the statute was not available therewith.

The bench then read out the relevant provision/statute to the lawyer, but he remained unable to identify any constituent therein to corroborate his argument.

It was further articulated that the absence of any provision for a statutory appeal provided entitlement to prefer a writ petition while such an argument was prima facie in conflict with his earlier submission, however, once again the counsel remained unable to substantiate his averment with any law, it added.

The bench also observed that the jurisdiction of the SHC in review proceedings was limited and the entire thrust of the arguments advanced by the counsel was directed towards merits of an already dismissed case and there was absolutely no effort to identify any mistake or error apparent on the face of the record or any other sufficient reason justifying a review of the order.

“It is thus the considered view of this Court that these applications are frivolous, devoid of merit, hence, were dismissed, with costs of Rs25,000 each to be deposited in the account of the Sindh High Court Clinic,” it concluded.

Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2024