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CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 4720 of 1984.

Appeal by Special leave from the Judgment and order dated the 24th November, 1983 of the Punjab and Haryana HIGH Court in C.W.P. No. 4839 of 1983.

V.M. Tarkande and A.K. Goel, for the Appellant. Ashwani Kumar and A.K. Panda for the Respondents. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHANDRACHUD, C.J. The appellants 22 in number, who hold a three-year Diploma in Electrical Engineering Course from the State Board of Technical Education, Punjab, were appointed as apprentices in August 1981. The Principal, Technical Training Institute, Punjab State Electricity Board, Patiala, who is respondent 3 herein, issued the requisite certificates to the appellants on successful completion by them of one year's apprenticeship. After obtaining those certificates the appellants registered their names with the Employment Exchanges in Punjab. The Ministry of Labour and Rehabilitation, Department of Labour (D.G.E.T.), Government of India, New Delhi, issued instructions to various offices including the Punjab State Electricity Board. Patiala, respondent 2 herein, asking that necessary action should be taken to ensure that the trained apprentices are absorbed in industries upto a minimum of 50 per cent of direct recruitment vacancies. These instructions were notified on March 23, 1983. On July 27, 1983, respondent 2 advertised 50 posts of Junior Engineers-II (Electrical) in its establishment, for which the appellant had successfully completed a one-year apprenticeship.

Section 22(1) of the Apprentices Act, 52 of 1961, provides that it shall not be obligatory on the part of the employer to offer any employment to any apprentice who has completed the period of his apprenticeship training in his establishment nor shall it be obligatory on the part of the apprentice to accept an employment under the employer. This provision is, however, subject to the non-obstante clause in sub-section (2) of section 22 which reads as follows:

"Notwithstanding anything in sub-section (1), where there is a condition in a contract of apprenticeship that the apprentice shall, after the successful completion of the apprenticeship training, serve the employer, the employer shall, on such completion, be bound to offer suitable employment to the apprentice, and the apprentice shall be bound to serve the employer in that capacity for such period and on such remuneration as may be specified in the contract".

The question which, therefore, arises for consideration is whether there is a condition in the contract of apprenticeship of the appellants that they shall serve the employer after the successful completion of their apprenticeship training. In this behalf, Para graph 2 of the letters of appointment under which the appellants were appointed as apprentices is important. It reads thus:

"It should be clearly understood that you shall be on stipendary training for a period of one year and on successful completion of this training, you shall be absorbed in the department if there are vacancies, without any commitment subject to the stipulation that during the waiting period after one year s apprenticeship, you will not be paid any remuneration".

It is urged on behalf of the respondents that, this particular term in the contract of apprenticeship cannot be construed as a condition that the apprentices shall, after the successful completion of their apprenticeship training, serve the employer. We find it difficult to accept this submission. Paragraph 2 of the letters of appointment is intended to convey the meaning that there is an obligation on the apprentices to serve the employer after the successful completion of the training. This condition is not happily expressed but, in matters such as the one before us, one must take a broad and commonsense view of the terms of employment. It is not pro per in such cases to indulge in a hair-splitting approach and find an escape for defeating the rights of employees. When paragraph 2 says that the apprentice "shall be absorbed in the department", the only reasonable interpretation to put upon that expression is that it creates reciprocal rights and obligation of the parties to the contract of apprenticeship, namely, the employee and the employer "You shall be absorbed" is a double-edged term of the contract. It binds the employer to offer employment to the apprentice (if there is a vacancy) and, equally, it binds the apprentice to accept the offer.