Wrongful dismissal under service regulations did not make the termination void; remedy lay in damages, not declaration of continued service.

An employee of a statutory corporation whose service was terminated in breach of service regulations was not entitled to a declaration that the dismissal was null and void or that service continued. The governing Act empowered the corporation to regulate service conditions, but it did not impose a statutory bar on termination or a mandatory dismissal procedure. The regulations were treated as contractual service conditions and did not confer the kind of statutory protection that would remove the employment from the ordinary master-and-servant relationship. The dismissal was therefore wrongful but not void for want of jurisdiction, and the employee's remedy lay in damages rather than reinstatement by declaration.

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Issues: Whether an employee of a statutory corporation, whose service was terminated in breach of the service regulations made under the governing Act, was entitled to a declaration that the dismissal was null and void and that his service continued.

Analysis: The governing Act authorised the corporation to appoint employees and to regulate their service conditions by regulations, but it did not itself impose any statutory restriction on the power to terminate service or prescribe any mandatory procedural safeguard for dismissal. The regulations framed under the Act embodied contractual service conditions, but they did not convert the relationship into one protected by a statutory bar on termination. In the absence of a statutory obligation comparable to public service protection or an office held with status, the employment remained in the ordinary master-and-servant category. A wrongful dismissal in breach of regulations therefore did not justify a declaration that the employment continued; the remedy lay in damages.

Conclusion: The employee was not entitled to a declaration of nullity, and the dismissal, though wrongful, was not void for want of jurisdiction.

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