GUJARAT ELECTRICITY BOIARD Vs. ASHOKKUMAR P PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this group of petitions, the petitioner is common i.e. employer erstwhile Gujarat Electricity Board and respondent in the Recovery Application Nos.118/1986 to 128/1986 in the Labour Court, Kalol has approached this Court under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, challenging the award and common order passed by the Court on 29.07.1993 allowing those applications and directing the petitioner to pay Compensatory Local Allowance and House Rent Allowance (herein after referred to as "CLA" and "HRA" for the sake of brevity). The workmen were found to be entitled to receive these benefits under the Circular No.297 dated 01.05.1979.

(2.) Facts in brief leading to filing these petitions, as could be culled out from the memo of respective petitions, deserve to be set out as under:

(3.) Learned advocate for the petitioner board contended that the Recovery Applications were not maintainable as normally existence of right to receive the benefit was conspicuously absent so far as the respondent workmen are concerned. The learned advocate for the petitioner, thereafter contended that the full fledge Reference No. 273/1986 was decided by the competent Court under the provisions of I.D. Act in respect of very same Circular No. 297 dated 01.05.1979 and after elaborate discussion thereunder, the competent Tribunal came to the conclusion that the workmen covered by the reference were not eligible to receive the benefits of HRA and CLA. This judgment and award was rendered on 28.10.1991 and it was pressed into service for resisting recovery applications. Unfortunately, the Court while deciding the Recovery applications, did not appreciate this aspect. In Recovery applications, the reasons adopted by the Court under reference who have persuaded the Court not to allow recovery applications.