GEB Vs. BALLKHAN D JOYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India though styled as one under Articles 14 and 226 of the Constitution, at the instance of the Gujarat Electricity Board, challenging the judgement and award passed by the Labour Court, Kalol in Reference (LCK) No.22/86.

(2.) I am conscious of the limitations of this court while dealing with petitions under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, wherein findings of fact recorded by the lower courts on the basis of appreciation of evidence on record cannot lightly be interfered with. However, as I shall discuss hereinafter, there is no serious controversy as to the facts established on record, but the Labour Court has in interpreting the facts, added its own grossly exaggerated twist arising from its own compassionate view in the matter which has resulted in a miscarriage of justice. In my view, therefore, the impugned award requires to be interfered with.

(3.) The respondent worked with the petitioner for two different periods and in two different capacities, as will be discussed hereinafter. There is no controversy that these two periods when he put in service were distinctly different and not contiguous to each other and that he had worked on different posts, in different capacities, during each of these periods. Nevertheless the Labour Court merely out of sympathetic considerations has clubbed the said two periods together with a view to create a more apparently reasonable case for the respondent.