GOWRISHANKER OIL MILLS Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions involve the question whether the industrial tribunal, Bangalore, has jurisdiction to adjudicate upon certain complaints made by some of the employees who are the petitioners in these cases that there has been a transgression of the provisions of S. 33 of the Industrial Disputes Act by the concerned employers. The question arises in this way.

(2.) On 25 November 1959 a dispute, which according to the State Government was an industrial dispute, was referred to the Industrial tribunal under S. 10(1)(d) of the Industrial Disputes Act. That reference is now pending before the industrial tribunal presided over by Mr. Malimath. An objection was raised on behalf of the employers to the jurisdiction of this tribunal to adjudicate upon these complaints. The foundation of this objection was that the dispute referred to the tribunal was not an industrial dispute since that dispute did not have the support of a substantial section of employees.

(3.) At an earlier stage of the proceedings relating to the reference some of the employers raised an objection to the competence of the tribunal to proceed with the reference. The ground on which that objection was founded was the same as the one on which the competence of the tribunal to adjudicate upon the complaints was founded. By an order made by the tribunal on 8 October, 1960 on that earlier objection, it proclaimed its intention to decide the question whether the dispute was or was not an industrial dispute along with the other question arising in the case.