BANGALORE BAPTIST HOSPITAL SOCIETY Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard counsel for the petitioners and 2nd respondent, Union, at the stage of preliminary hearing.

(2.) Petitioner challenges the order of reference issued by the State Government under Section 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (referred as 'the Act' hereinafter). The relevant extract of the order of reference (Annexure-A) reads as follows:-

(3.) According to Sri K.G. Raghavan, the learned counsel for the petitioner, the order of reference assumes as a fact that the five departments are proposed to be closed down and consequently the workmen named in the order of reference were to be retrenchment. The retrenched proposed was the result of the decision to close down those departments. The validity of this closure is not in question and if so, the consequential retrenchment also cannot be questioned by the workmen. The learned counsel argued that, the closure of an establishment or a part of it is an exclusive managerial function which cannot be challenged by the workmen. In view of these factors, it was contended that, the dispute referred is not an 'industrial dispute' at all and hence, the order of reference was liable to be struck down.