ASSOCIATION OF PLANTERS, KERALA Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL, TRIVANDRUM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Association of Planters of Kerala in Muttambalam, Kottayam, is the appellant before us, and claims to have been formed with the main object of representing and promoting the interest of the plantation industry in the State. It appears that the appellant, in pursuance of the aforesaid object, had undertaken in 1942 the distribution of food grains to the estates, and later the distribution of rationed food grains among the entire estate population of the State. The situation having improved in 1954, the distribution scheme had to be discontinued, and the surplus staff to be retrenched. A special sub committee was appointed for the purpose, which suggested retrenchment of 34 persons, including one C. K. John. That employee had resigned his appointment with the appellant from June 1, 1949, and had taken employment elsewhere. Later on, he applied on September 13, 1949, and was reappointed from September 15, 1949. When so reappointing, the appellant's management had directed that the gap in John's service would be treated as leave without salary, and he would be deemed to have continued in service from the date of his first entrance, which therefore, would be binding only on the employer, because no other employee was a party to it. In any case, it would not adversely affect the rights of one V. K. George, who, though employed on May 18, 1946, which was later than John's first employment, had never left the employment, and never consented to the concession, and had, therefore, become senior in service to John, whose employment had become broken by resignation and fresh appointment. That was the position when the retrenchment was decided upon, and the Committee recommended only 8 persons being retained, of whom one should be the Head accountant Head Clerk, one accountant cum-clerk, one cashier cum clerk, one stenographer and recorder, one despatch clerk, two peons and one watcher. The appellant gave effect to the recommendations ; and, among those retrenched was C. K. John, who was then the Head Clerk. V. K. George, who was then assistant accountant, was retained. A dispute arose, and the Government by notification dated March 10, 1955, referred the following two questions to the Industrial Tribunal, Trivandrum:

(2.) The Tribunal's award was published on September 16, 1958, which has found that the appellant's action was in gross violation of the principles of 'last come, first go', and the departure from the rule had not been accounted for. The management was, therefore, directed to pay half the salary and allowances from the date of discharge till C. K. John be re-instated in service, which was also directed by the award. This was followed by a writ petition in this Court, to which both John and George were impleaded, and the learned Judge has declined to interfere, where against this appeal has been filed.

(3.) We do not propose to interfere with the findings of fact by the Industrial Tribunal about the recommendation of the committee not being proper, but that would not justify John's being re-instated unless the principle of the 'last come, first go' has been infringed. Therefore, the short question arising for decision in the appeal is whether C. K. John's retrenchment had been in violation of the statutory direction contained in S.25G of the Industrial Disputes Act, which reads as follows: