SALUTING LIVING LEGENDS OF LABOUR JUDICIARY

By:
MAHMOOD ABDUL GHANI
Advocate
Supreme Court of Pakistan

Legends are not born every day. Legends live in the hearts and minds. They will live so long as Labour Law exists and even thereafter. In Pakistan such Living Legends are Chief Justice (Retired) Inamullah Khan, originally Chief Justice of West Pakistan High Court, subsequently Chairman West Pakistan Labour Appellate Tribunal and thereafter Chairman Sindh Labour Appellate Tribunal. One of the proudest upright Judge, which son of soil of Sindh has produced, is Justice Z.A. Channa, Father-in-Law of Mr. Justice Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, retired Judge of Supreme Court of Pakistan. He not only laid down foundation of Labour Jurisprudence in Pakistan but encouraged us to the extent of compelling us to go through all the Labour Law decisions delivered by Supreme Court of India from 1947 onwards to date, and obtain copies of the decisions and place them on record so that Labour and Industrial Jurisprudence, with improvement was developed in this country. Another Living Legend is Justice H.T. Raymond, whose brother was Principal of Saint Patrick’s High School, where I started my education, and did my Senior Cambridge. Justice Aga Ali Haider, was originally a District and Session Judge and Chairman of Industrial Court at Karachi, was subsequently elevated as Judge High Court of Sindh and thereafter became Chief Justice of Sindh High Court. Following his retirement he adorned the office as Chairman Sindh Labour Appellate Tribunal. They all could safely be termed equal to V.R. Krishna Iyer, the Living Legend of Indian Supreme Court, as Living Legend of Labour Judiciary in Sindh. Their use of English vocabulary and concise use of English words, phrases/idioms and poems were evident in the same way as the decisions of Mr. Justice (Retired) V.R. Krishna Iyer of Supreme Court of India. Mr. Justice Mushtaq Ali Kazi another proud son of soil of Sindh and Father-in-Law of Justice Agha Rafiq Ahmed Khan, Chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court of Pakistan, is yet another Living Legend, who adorned Labour Judiciary of Sindh. Invariably he gave an impression as if he was sleeping in Court, but in actual fact, he was meditating and indeed trying to crystallize the arguments of Counsels appearing before him. In not more than one and half page he marshalled the facts lay down broad outlines of the arguments of both the Counsels addressing the Court, but briefly keeping in view the facts of the case, he would dictate and decide the appeals. Justice Dr. Tanzeel-ur-Rehman, Islamic Scholar and one of the recipient of Gold medal from Islamic Development Bank in Jeddah for his thesis on Islamic Economic and Banking, is another Legend. Based on my more than 54 years exclusive practice before Labour Judiciary, I recall with owe and administration the contribution which these Legends between 1969 up to the turn of 20^th Century contributed in the development of Labour Jurisprudence in this country. Punjab, KPK (previously known as NWFP) and Balochistan copiously followed the decisions given by these Legends. Not very often their decisions were challenged in the High Court or the Supreme Court, and hardly is it recall any decision being set aside by the Apex Court. We salute these Living Legends. They live in our hearts, and of all those Advocates, Labour Representatives, who had an opportunity and honour to appear before them. It used to be indeed a privilege to address the Court.

There is a Jewish Folk saying that “Justice delayed is worst than injustice”. At one time, Plato, in “The Republic” in 370-BC. had claimed “Justice is but the interest of the stronger.” Cicero, 106-43 BC has been quoted in International Encyclopedia of prose and political quotations by William S. Walsh who has said: “Foundation of justice are that no one should be harmed.”

People become more subservient to justice, when they see the author of law obeying it himself. Time and again the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan, Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, has been reported to have claimed in open Court: “Let justice be done though world perish or heaven falls.” The Labour Justice may wink wheel but is bound to see at last. The weakest arm is strong enough that strikes with the sword of justice. Fresh justice is the sweetest, as Francis Bacon once proclaimed. Sir Edward Coke has said: “It is worst operation that is done by colour of justice – No wonder justice is blind. It knows nobody”. Today love of labour justice is simply in the majority of labour and employers out of fear of suffering injustice. Justice may be lame as well as blind amongst us but justice is truth in action. Justice should be first and then after that the law. It costs Labour Judiciary nothing to be just. George Elliot has claimed: “Justice is like kingdom of God – It is not without us as a fact, it is within us as a great yearning”. Justice should travel with leaden heel. It should strike with an iron hand. Unfortunately we claim to love justice greatly but just love man to little. Attainment of labour justice is the highest human endeavour, whether there is killing of innocent young boy out to protect dignity of his sister and or ruthless killing of innocent people in Quetta. A call is made that Chief Justice of Pakistan should take Suo Moto notice each time. The people feel the Apex Court is the Hall of Justice, and only place one can get justice in the Halls. Martin Luther King once announced: “Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stand against love”. Even disgraced, Richard M. Nixon has said: “Justice delayed is only justice denied” – It is also justice circumvented, justice mocked and system of justice undermined. No wonder Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of US Supreme Court addressing American Bar Association in 1972 said: “Ideas, ideals and great conceptions are vital to a system of justice, but it must have more than that – there must be delivery and execution. Concepts of justice must have hands and feet or they remain sterile abstractions. The hands and feet we need are efficient means and methods to carry out justice in every case in the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost. This is the challenge to every lawyer and Judge in America.” Emerson has rightly said: “Men are what their mother made them.”

Jimmy Carter another President of USA has said: “The law is not the private property of lawyers, nor is justice the exclusive province of judges and juries. In the final analysis, true justice is not a matter of Courts and law books, but of a commitment in each of us to liberty and mutual respect.”

Living Legends to whom we salute, took up cuddle and challenge as Labour Laws was neither enunciated nor Labour and Industrial Jurisprudence laid down in the earlier days of the creation of this great country. They did not go for chauffer driven cars, perks and even accommodation. They had yearning for dispensation of labour justice. At 8.30 am on the dot, they would leave their chambers and start labour appeal proceedings. Each of the Counsel appearing before them knew that these Legends hearing their appeals have gone through the records and proceedings of Industrial Courts and Labour Courts, line by line, examination of documents and cannot be taken, as such for a ride. Arguments were precise and to the point. The questions were pointedly posed to the Counsels to elaborate on legal points duly supported by authorities of Supreme Court, if available. They were read in open Court, examined and in some cases, but disagreed. After both parties had addressed a Court in pin drop silence, these Legends used to dictate decision in open Court to their Steno and or Private Secretary. No grounds raised by the Counsel were ignored. All points were attended to, case laws either followed or distinguished in appropriate cases, and thereafter Labour Jurisprudence was laid down. Invariably in most of the cases decisions used to be balanced and to the satisfaction of both the parties. No wonder hardly any decision of these Legends were challenged in the High Court much less in the Apex Court. Once a decision was given, next case in daily Cause List used to be taken up. No adjourned, be that for any reason or ground was granted. Invariably in this way till 2.00 PM about 8 to 10 appeals daily were decided. Tea intervals of 30 minutes were taken and the decorum was that not only of the High Court but almost decorum of Apex Court. Steno and Reader dare not interfere or intervene or try to influence the proceedings in any form or manner whatsoever. There was no pressure from the Chief Justice of the High Court to ask for the annual disposal of cases before these Legends. These Legends believed that disposal means deciding cases on merits and not dismissing cases on non prosecution or disposal on the ground of parties having amicably settled outside the Court. Such disposal were disposal in ordinary sense of the term but were not treated as such in the vocabulary of these Legends. All appeals were decided within three months of institution. These Legends used to silently take down the notes not interrupting the Counsels, asking questions by way of clarifications at intervals. They did not give their mind as to what was to be decision, and if a matter of question of law was involved, Senior Labour Law Representative like late M.L. Shahani, late Ali Amjad, Mr. Obaidur-Rehman, even late Kamal Mansur Alam (since retired as Supreme Court Judge), Mr. Mamoon A. Kazi and Mr. Fakhruddin G. Ibrahim were asked to appear as Amicus Curiae and assist the Tribunal time and again.

These Living Legends performed their duty as part of their religious obligations. No one in the last half a Century have ever raised one accusing finger on the partiality against any of them. Though one of the two sides, lost cases, they knew that they were given patient hearing and the decision was based exclusively on records and proceedings and was dictated by the Judge himself and announced in open Court without any consideration. These Living Legends also maintained a certain degree of distance with the Members of Bar. They would hardly attend annual functions or attend to the wedding of family members of the Counsels and Labour Representatives, even if invited, with a smile and words of blessing to the married couple. They maintained high standard of discipline. No one was allowed to speak out of turn, or in a loud voice or to browbeat the Court. The Legends were looked towards with feeling of Awe. Such were the Living Legends of Sindh in the Labour Appellate Tribunal. No more now and all appear to fall apart.

Our best teachers were these Living Legends. They had Euclid on their finger tips and English Phrases, Idioms, Thesaurus and quotations lay stored, never time-barred, in their sparse, silvery-haired head. Superannuated though, their mind were fresh, their mood quite, and they taught us, what in higher classes, colleges we could not get from our teachers. We owe much of our mental beginning, our love for industrial relations, labour laws and above all Labour and Industrial Jurisprudence to these self respecting, God-fearing, diminutive ancient men. They were vibrant, since age did not wither them, nor custom stale their infinite variety. Permit me, friends to do first thing first. So we bow, in profound reverence, before the cherished memory of these incomparable stalwarts of Labour Judiciary and above all humanists. We need them every hour, every moment in our asurie system, to defend the moral order and probity in our lives. What a pity our nation is today riddled with rogues, rascal and freebooters as well as criminalized politicians and political criminals. In Labour Judiciary we are in a demolished mood, a spirit of unworthiness, a feeling of aloofness against office, perks, flattery by clerks and some advocates and Labour representatives. Our minds are elsewhere, our search is in different sphere, and our sunset age is shell-socked by the scenario of ambitious gold rush in Labour Judiciary.