NATIONAL ENGINEERING INDUSTRIES LIMITED Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellant, an employer, is aggrieved by judgment dated March 25, 1996 of the Division Bench of the Rajasthan High Court affirming in appeal the judgment dated December 15, 1992 of the learned single Judge. By this judgment the learned single Judge negatived the challenge of the appellant to the validity of the notification issued by the State Government under Section 10(1)(d)11 read with Section 12(5)22 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (for short, the 'Act') to adjudicate the disputes between the appellant and the National Engineering Industries Workers' Union (for short, the Workers' Union) in respect of the demands raised by the Workers' Union. This notification is as under :

(2.) It would be appropriate at this stage to know the background under which the reference came to be made.

(3.) Appellant is a company registered under the Companies Act with its registered office at Calcutta. One of its factories is located at Khatipura Road, Jaipur in the State of Rajasthan. There are three unions with which we are concerned and these are : (1) National Engineering Industries Labour Union (for short, the 'Labour Union'); (2) National Engineering Industries Staff Union (for short, the 'Staff Union'); and (3) the Workers' Union referred to above. It is stated that Labour Union has majority of the workers on its roll; is recognised, and is the representative union and registered as such under the provisions of the Act as amended by the Rajasthan Industrial Disputes Amendment Act, 1958. In 1983 all the three unions made their charter of demands. A tripartite settlement 4 arrived at between the management, Labour Union and the Staff Union. In respect of demands made by the Workers' Union failure report was submitted. Workers' Union made representation to the State Government for referring their disputes for adjudication. This request was, however, declined by the State Government in view of the tripartite settlement already reached between the representative union, the Staff Union and the management. The settlement was to remain valid and operative till September, 1986. All the three unions made fresh charter of demands in 1986 which were identical in almost all respects. Conciliation proceedings were initiated and though failure report was submitted by the Conciliation Officer in respect of the proceedings regarding the Workers' Union, conciliation settlement was arrived at with the Labour Union and the Staff Union. It was a conciliation settlement and was to be in operation for a period of three years ending September 30, 1989. It is not disuted that all the employees of the appellant including the members of the Workers' Union accepted the benefits under this tripartite settlement.