WORKMEN OF INDIAN EXPRESS PRIVATE LIMITED Vs. MANAGEMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Two workmen, Gulab Singh and Satya Pal, were appointed by the respondent-company in December 1956 and February, 1955 respectively under the designation of copy-holders. It was alleged that they were entrusted with the duties of proof-readers and there fore they claimed that they should be treated as such. In July, 1959, the management issued an order in which the two workmen were described as copy-holders. It was alleged that in spite of this order the management continued to give the workmen the work of proof-readers. A dispute whether the two workmen should be treated as proof-readers having arisen and having been espoused by the Delhi Union of Journalists, the Delhi Administration, by a notification dated August 2, 1961 referred it to the Industrial Tribunal, Delhi.

(2.) The management contended that the said dispute was an individual dispute and not an Industrial dispute and that being so it was wrongly referred to the Tribunal and the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to adjudicate it. The Tribunal raised the preliminary issue, namely, whether the dispute relating to the said two workmen was an industrial dispute. The Tribunal held that it was not an industrial dispute but was only an individual dispute of the two workmen and therefore it had no jurisdiction to adjudicate the said reference. The workmen obtained special leave from this Court and that is how this appeal has come up before us for disposal.

(3.) Apart from the oral evidence, the appellants, relied on two documents, Ex. WWI/A, which purported to be the minutes of a meeting held on November 15, 1960 of 17 working journalists and Ex. WB/1 purporting to be the minutes of a meeting of the executive committee of the Delhi Union of Journalists held on December 1, 1960. The Union maintained that these two resolutions were proof of espousal of the dispute, the first by an appreciable number of the co-workers of the two aggrieved workmen and the second by the union and therefore the dispute though originally an individual dispute was converted into an industrial dispute. The Tribunal rejected Ex. WW1/A, namely, the minutes of the alleged meeting of the 17 working journalists in the employ of the respondent company as unreliable. The Tribunal next considered whether, even assuming that the said 17 working journalists espoused the cause of the two workmen that espousal transformed the dispute in question into an industrial dispute, in other words, whether they constituted an appreciable number sufficient to change the dispute into an industrial dispute. At the material time the Branch office of the respondent company at Delhi consisted in all of 388 employees, out of whom 140 were working in the Press The working journalists numbered 131, out of whom 63 were outstation correspondents and the remaining 68 were working journalists performing their duties in Delhi and New Delhi. The Tribunal held that though the said 63 working journalists were outstation journalists they nevertheless belonged to the staff of the respondent company's Delhi Branch, and therefore, could note be excluded from consideration. The question which the Tribunal posed to itself was whether 17 out of the said 131 working journalists could be said to be an appreciable number. According to the Tribunal, even if those 63 outstation correspondents were excluded and only 68 working journalists were considered, 17 of them would not constitute an appreciable number sufficient to convert the said dispute into an industrial dispute. It also held that mere passing of a resolution without anything done to follow it up was not sufficient to constitute espousal. There was no evidence that after passing the said alleged resolution on November 15, 1960 anything further was done. On these facts the Tribunal did not consider the aforesaid resolution, assuming that it was passed, as constituting espousal.