MALABAR PLYWOOD WORKS Vs. GOVERNMENT OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Malabar. Plywood Works,. Feroke, is a registered partnership, and has filed this petition to-vacate the award in Industrial Dispute No. 47/57. The aforesaid award was made in a dispute between the petitioner and the firm's employees, which the Government had referred to the Industrial Tribunal, Kozhikode, and, on the Tribunal being abolished, to the Industrial Tribunal, Ernakulam. Six issues were referred, but we are concerned only with two, whose findings the petitioner seeks to vacate. The issues are:-

(2.) THE learned advocates of the parties be-fore us are agreed on the deductions to be made for the purposes of ascertaining the profit that becomes available for distribution among the workmen as the bonus. Some of these deductions have been shown in Mill Owners Association, Bombay v. Rashtreeya. Mill Mazdoor sangh, Bombay, 1950-2 Lab LJ 1247 (LATI-Bom.), and are still treated as correctly indicating how the aforesaid profits are to be ascertained, Indeed, the supreme Court, in Muir Mills Co. v. Suti Mills Mazdoor Union, Kanpur, (S) AIR 1955 SC 170, has approved of what had been laid by the Labour Appellate tribunal in the aforesaid case to be the proper deductions. According to the decision, the following are the first charges on gross profit:-

(3.) SINCE then, income-tax payable by the concern, has been also treated as a justifiable item of debit for ascertaining the distributable surplus; for, gajendragadkar, J. , in Kirloskar Oil Engines v. Their Workmen, 1960-1 Lab LJ 512: (AIR 1959 SC 1276) while affirming the earlier decision of Associated Cement companies Ltd. v. Their Workmen, 1959-1 Lab LJ 644: (AIR 1959 SC 967) has said: