BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LIMITED Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in both the above writ petitions is the chief manager of BSNL, Trivandrum who is the management in I.D. No. 35/2003 before the Industrial Tribunal, Kollam. In W.P. (C) No. 14625/2004, he is challenging Exhibit P-4 order passed by the Tribunal in C.M.P. No. 14/2003, in the said ID. When that dispute was raised before the conciliation officer, the workmen were represented by 3 unions. Later on, when the management was renamed as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., these three unions decided to function as one union named as BSNL Mazdoor Sangh. This union filed the said C.M.P. In the said I.D., seeking permission to represent the workmen in the dispute, which was opposed by the petitioner management on the ground that the union is not recognised by the management. Overruling the objection, the Tribunal allowed the petition by the order impugned in the Writ Petition. The petitioner management is challenging that order. The contention raised by the petitioner is that the 2nd respondent-union has not been recognised by the BSNL as competent to represent the employees of the BSNL and therefore they have no right to be heard in the matter. The petitioner also relies on the decision of the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal No. 3337-3338/2002 as also the interim order of the High Court of Andra Pradesh in a writ petition pending before that High Court.

(2.) The learned Counsel for the 2nd respondent opposes the contentions of the petitioner. He would submit that the Industrial Disputes Act does not require that an industrial dispute should be raised by a recognised union or a majority union, or that in an industrial dispute workmen can be represented only by a recognised union or a majority union. According to them even without a union, a group of workmen themselves can join together to raise an industrial dispute, and one representative among them can represent those workmen in proceedings before the Tribunal or Labour Court.

(3.) I have considered the rival contentions. "Industrial dispute" is defined in Section 2(k) of the Industrial Disputes Act thus: