MULJIBHAI BHURABHAI Vs. UPENDRA VYAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The applicant- workman has made a grievance in this application that even though the Industrial Court has passed an award dated 13th September 1999 in Appeal (IC) No. 43 of 1995, in his favour, he is neither reinstated nor paid back wages and, therefore, the respondents be held guilty of having committed wilful contempt of the Court and to punish the respondents as per the provisions of Contempt of Courts Act.

(2.) This is one of many such matters whereby the concerned workman, instead of executing the award under section 33(C) of the Industrial Disputes Act, has filed application under section 10 of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971. This Court entertains such applications in view of different set of decisions in the matter. The questions involved in these applications are :

(3.) Mr.V.B.Patel, learned Counsel, after having invited our attention to the provisions of constitution as well as Industrial Disputes Act, submitted that even though the Labour Court/ Industrial Tribunal exercises powers to adjudicate rights of the parties, they are not "Courts". In other words, Mr. Patel submitted that the labour courts/industrial tribunals are not 'courts' even though they have trappings of the courts. In the submission of Mr. Patel, they are exercising purely quasi judicial powers under the supervision of the High Court and,therefore,mere supervision by the High Court under Article 227 of the Constitution is not a real test so as to make them "Courts" within the meaning of section 10 of the Contempt of Courts Act. Mr. Patel finally submitted that in view of the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of (The) Alahar Cooperative Credit Service Society Vs. Shamlal, 1995(2) GLH 550 wherein the Supreme Court, in no uncertain terms, has held that the Labour Court constituted under section 7 of the Industrial Disputes Act is not 'a court subordinate to High Court' under section 10 of the Contempt of Courts Act and, therefore, the contempt proceedings for non compliance of the order or award are not maintainable, the point is concluded and, therefore, the present application is required to be rejected.