Govt challenges apex court ruling on sacked employees act

ISLAMABAD (APP): The federal government on Tue-sday challenged the Supr-eme Court’s judgment reg-arding striking down the Sacked Employees (Reinst-atement) Act 2010. Addit-ional Attorney General Sa-jid Ilyas filed a review petition against SC’s August 16 judgment. The review petition stated that the court passed the judgment without issuing formal notice under order XXVIIA, CPC and hearing the attorney general of Pakistan particularly with reference to the constitutionality of the Act.
Likewise, the employees who had been conferred benefits under the Act and number in thousands, were neither heard nor provided an opportunity of hearing before the adverse action was taken against them, says the review petition.
The petition stated that the judgment under review was passed ignoring the principle of natural justice and was liable to be reviewed and recalled on this ground alone and that the impugned judgment was reserved on 16.12.2019 but was not announced until 17.08.2021 i-e after a lapse of 20 months which was against the set principles of due process.
The petition stated that the Parliament was competent to legislate in respect of employees in the service of federal corporations, bodies or organization to which the Act was applied. “It is submitted that legitimate rights and interests of the existing employees including their seniority positions and promotion prospects could have been protected without declaring the entire Act as ultra vires of the Constitution.”
“The issue of seniority under the Act had to be resolved on a case-to-case basis and the Act could not be struck down on this ground. The Act could have been read down or if there was any offending provision, it could have been severed,” the review petition prayed further.