MUSALIAR INDUSTRIES PRIVATE LTD Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner seeks certiorari to vacate the award by the Industrial Tribunal, Trivandrum, in I. D. No. 212/1955. Thereby the petitioners' Management has been directed to reinstate one Hussankutiy with back wages, which must include the salary and allowances Hussankutty was getting from the date they were stopped till the date of his re-instatement. Prior to the dispute this Hussankutty was a clerk in the Eruva Cashew Factory of Messrs. Thangal Kunju Musaliar & Sons (P) Ltd., hereinafter referred to as A, T. K. M. & Sons Ltd. That company was then engaged in cashewnat business, and was working

(2.) While this dispute was pending, the Tribunal had passed an interim award directing the management either to reinstate Hussankutty or to pay" him salary till the final disposal of the dispute, and the management, having failed in the appeal against the order had paid Hussankutty his salaries till the end of November 1956. Meanwhile A. T. K. M. & Sons Ltd. found itself in difficulties ; and in August 1956 stopped working the factories due to various reasons, the most important of which is stated to be the financial break-down brought about by excessive income tax assessment. The closure is said to have created a serious industrial unrest in the Quilon area, and to have thereby caused anxiety to the State Government. After negotiations, the State Government agreed to guarantee a loan of Rs. 20 lakhs from the Central Bank of India Ltd., to Sri. A. Thangal Kunju Musaliar, and on March 7, 1957, the donees of A. Thangal Kunju Musaliar, as well as the donor, executed a mortgage of the properties in favour of the State Government. This was in consideration of the Government's having guaranteed the loan by the Central Bank of India. In paragraph 6 of the affidavit furnished in support of this writ petition, it has been averred that in fulfilment of the promise to provide employment for the workmen, who were rendered unemployed by the closure of Messrs. A. T. K. M. & Sons Ltd., a new company by the name "Musaliar Industries (Private) Ltd." was inaugurated, and its certificate of incorporation is also dated March 7, 1957. This new company is the petitioner before us, and appears to have reopened the factories in April 1957.

(3.) The Government has, by order of September 16, 1957, added the petitioner company as a party to the dispute that had been earlier referred to the Industrial Tribunal, and purports to have done so in exercise of powers under S.10(5) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947. The Tribunal,, thereafter,, proceeded to adjudicate on the first question referred to it and has found the petitioner company to be A. T. K. M. & Sons Ltd., in another garb. It has, therefore, directed the petitioner company to re-instate Hussankutty in service with back wages, which order this petition seeks to vacate on three grounds. Before enumerating these, we would state that there are four respondents to the ' petition. Of these, the State of Kerala is the first; the Industrial Tribunal, Trivandrum, the second; Messrs. A. T. K. M. & Sons (Private) Ltd., the third; and the Employees Association, the fourth. Now the grounds taken for vacating the award are that: