S NARAYANAN MOOSATH Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner has approached this Court seeking police protection for running his hotel and for issuance of a writ of prohibition, order or direction prohibiting respondents 4 to 18 from obstructing the customers of hotel run by the petitioner.

(2.) Briefly put, the case of the petitioner is as follows: Petitioner is the General Manager of a 3 star hotel. There is a bar in the hotel. The management found that the said bar is not fit for their 3 star standard and they decided to shut down the bar. The bar is closed and the management has given notice of termination to 15 employees. Respondents 4 to 18 are the employees whose service is terminated by the management on 4.4.2010. Respondents 4 to 18 made complaint to the District Labour Officer, Kollam. Conciliation proceedings are going on. It is alleged that respondents 4 to 18 came to the premises of the hotel and they threatened the customers and employees. They said that they will destroy the hotel and proprietor Mr.Rajendran Pillai. Petitioner filed Exts.P2 complaint for which Ext.P3 is the receipt.

(3.) We heard the learned counsel for the petitioner, learned counsel for respondents 4 to 18 and also the learned Government Pleader. Learned counsel for respondents 4 to 18 would submit that there is a labour dispute. But, he would anyway submit that respondents 4 to 18 have no intention to obstruct the functioning of the hotel. We record the same and close the writ petition. This will be without prejudice to the right of respondents 4 to 18 to ventilate their grievances before the statutory authorities.