CENTRAL BANK OF INDIA Vs. THEIR WORKMEN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are seven appeals on behalf of different Banks working in this country, some incorporated in India and some outside India. It is necessary that we should very briefly state the background of the industrial dispute which has given rise to these appeals. It is now well-known that there was a sharp rise in the prices of commodities during and after World War No. II. This rise in prices very seriously affected salaried employees belonging to the middle class including such employees in the banking industry. In or about the year1946 trade unions of bank employees presented demands for higher salaries and allowances and better conditions of service. In some cases notices of threatened strike were also served on the employers. The unrest became particularly acute in the provinces of Bombay, the United Provinces, and Bengal as they were then known. The local Governments of those provinces referred these industrial disputes for adjudication; this resulted in some regional awards which came to be known in Bombay as the Divatia Award, in the United Provinces as the B. B., Singh Award and in Bengal as the Gupta, Chakravary and Sen Awards. Notwithstanding these awards, the general unrest amongst Bank employees continued and there was a clamour for control of the banking industry by the Central Government. On 30-4-1949, was passed the Industrial Disputes (Banking and Insurance Companies) Ordinance (Ordinance VI of 1949) under the provisions of which all banking companies having branches or other establishments in more than one province came under the jurisdiction of the Central Government for the purposes of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (XIV of 1947). By a notification dated 13-6-1949, the Central Government constituted an ad hoc Tribunal consisting of Shri K. C. Sen, a retired Judge of the Bombay High Court, as Chairman with two other persons as members to adjudicate upon an industrial dispute between several banking companies and their workmen. On the same day, the industrial dispute was referred to the Tribunal by a separate order. The dispute covered several items, and some more were added from time to time. For the sake of convenience, we shall hereafter refer to this Tribunal as the Sen Tribunal and its award as the Sen Award. After a very exhaustive enquiry, the Sen Tribunal made its award which was published on 12-8-1950. Some of the leading Banks being dissatisfied with the award applied to the Supreme court and obtained special leave to appeal against the said award, as it had been specially exempted from the jurisdiction of the Labour Appellate Tribunal constituted under the Industrial Disputes (Appellate Tribunal) Act,1950 (XLVIII of 1950). This Court ultimately held that the award of the Sen Tribunal was void 'in toto' for want of jurisdiction, but did not go into the merits of the award with regard to any of the matters dealt with therein. The consequence of this decision was that the dispute in the banking industry remained unresolved. Soon after there were some strikes consequent on certain action taken by some of the Banks. The result was that the Central Government had to take steps afresh to settle this long standing dispute. Attempts were at first made through the machinery of conciliation to settled the dispute, but these attempts failed. On 26-6-1951, was enacted the Industrial Disputes (Amendment and Temporary Provisions) Act, 1951 (XL of 1951) which had the effect of temporarily, freezing some of the gains of labour under the Sen Award. In July 1951 the Central Government made a fresh reference to an Industrial Tribunal consisting of Shri H. V. Divatia, a retired Judge as Chairman and two other members, but the Chairman and the members resigned within a short time. On 5-1-1952, two notifications were made. By one notification a new Tribunal was constituted to be called the All India Industrial Tribunal (Bank Disputes). The Chairman of this Tribunal was Shri Panchapagesa Sastry, another retired Judge. The other two members were Shri M. L. Tannan and Shri V. L. D'souza. Hereafter we shall refer to this Tribunal as the Sastry Tribunal. By another notification of the same date the Central Government referred the matters specified in Sch. II of the notification, which were the matters in dispute between the employers and workmen of the banking companies specified in Sch. I, to the Tribunal for adjudication. We need not set out here the matters specified in Sch. II, but shall presently refer to those items only with which we are concerned in these appeals. The Sastry tribunal made its award which was published on 20-4-1953. This award came up for consideration of a Special Bench of the Labour Appellate Tribunal on appeals preferred by the employees of banks all over India and of the Banks themselves. The decision of the Labour Appellate Tribunal was given on 28-4-1954. Some of the Banks moved this Court for special leave to appeal from the decision dated 28-4-1954, of the Labour Appellate Tribunal and such leave was granted on 4-10-1954. The same order which granted special leave also directed that the appeals be consolidated. These seven appeals on behalf of different Banks against their workmen have been filed in pursuance of the aforesaid leave granted by this Court.

(2.) In Civil Appeal No. 56 of 1957 in which the Imperial Bank (now substituted as the State Bank of India) is the appellant, a preliminary objection has been taken on behalf of the respondent workmen of the Bank to the effect that the appeal is incompetent. We shall presently consider this preliminary objection, but before we do so, it will be convenient to indicate the principal questions which arise for consideration in these seven appeals.

(3.) These questions have been formulated under four heads: