GUJARAT MAZDOOR PANCHAYAT Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) .Through these four Special Civil Applications different petitioners have challenged the appointment of the respondent-Shri N. A. Acharya, Joint District Judge, Vadodara as the President of the Industrial Court, Gujarat made vide Notification dated 7-12-2000 issued by the order of Governor by the Labour and Employment Department of the Government of Gujarat under signatures of one Shri Mohan Chavda, Deputy Secretary to the Government in the Labour and Employment Department. Whereas all these four matters involve common question of law based on almost same set of facts, we propose to decide all these four Special Civil Applications by this common judgment and order as under :-

(2.) . Against the above order dated 26-12-2000 passed by the learned single Judge (Coram : P. B. Majmudar, J.), a Letters Patent Appeal No. 918 of 2000 was preferred by the High Court before the Division Bench. On 27-12-2000 when this Letters Patent Appeal came up before .the Division Bench (Coram : Ms. R. M. Doshit and A. L. Dave, JJ.), the Division Bench was informed that the concerned Judge Mr. Acharya was on probation and cannot avail leave and further that the Industrial Court was observing vacation from 26-12-2000 till 2-1-2001, and therefore, advocate for both the sides agreed that they would proceed further with the hearing of the matter on 2-1-2001 i.e. the date on which the matter was made to stand over and in this view of the matter, the Division Bench opined that the ends of justice shall be met if the direction issued against the learned Judge to remain on leave is set aside. The Letters Patent Appeal was accordingly allowed and the direction issued to the concerned Judge Mr. Acharya to remain on leave and not to function as President of the Industrial Court was set aside. On 2-1-2001 when the matter came up before the learned single Judge, an amendment was sought seeking a writ of quo warranto also in this case and the Court opined that looking to the question involved and further that it was a petition in the nature of public interest litigation, the matter may be placed before the Division Bench on 8-1-2001 for admission, with the clarification that the question of interim relief may be decided on the aforesaid date i.e. 8-1-2001.

(3.) . In the meanwhile Special Civil Application No. 79 of 2001 dated 6-1-2001 was filed on 8-1-2001 by the Gujarat Industrial Court Judges Association and 12 others, who were working as Members, Industrial Court, Gujarat. This petition was circulated on 8-1-2001 itself but the same was made to stand over to 10-1-2001 and again to 15-1-2001. Yet, another Special Civil Application No. 80 of 2001 dated 6-1-2001 had been filed on 6-1-2001 by the Labour Laws Practitioners Association and this petition was also made to stand over to 10-1-2001 on 8-1-2001 and again to 15-1-2001. One more Special Civil Application No. 93 of 2001 dated 8-1-2001 was filed on 8-1-2001 by the Surat Textile Labour Union and on 11-1-2001 it was also made to stand over to 15-1-2001.