(1.) SOMETIME in 1952, there was a dispute between the management of 32 mills in Coimbatore and the workmen employed therein in regard to the bonus payable to the latter (or the years 1919, 1950 and 1951, By C. O. Ms. No. 2019 dated 9th of May 1952, the State Government referred the dispute for adjudication to the Industrial Tribunal, Coimbatore, constituted under Section 7 of Act 14 of 1947. The Industrial Tribunal took on file the dispute as I.D. No. 13 of 1952, and issued notices to the Secretary of the Coimbatore District Textile Workers' Union and to the Honorary Secretary, the South Indian Mills Owner's Association, Coimbatore, the parties mentioned in the Government Order, requiring them to file their respective statements in connection with the dispute. The Government communicated a copy of the Government order to three other Unions, namely, the Coimbatore District Textile Mills Staff Union, the Coimbatore District Textile Jobbers' Union and the National Textile Workers' Union. The noticed were issued to those unions as well by the Indus -trial Tribunal. No notice was, however, given to the petitioner, namely, the District Mil) Workers' Union, Coimbatore, although they had participated in the antecedent conciliation proceedings which culminated in the reference under Section 10 of the Act.
(2.) AT an early stage of the enquiry, there was a dispute between the parties as to whether the management should give inspection of their accounts to the Union representatives. Although the Industrial Tribunal directed the management to give inspection of the accounts, the order was quashed on 30 -10 -1954 by this Court in W.P. Nos. 755 and 756 of 1952. In the meanwhile, that is, on 22nd October 1952, an agreement was entered into between the management and the District Textile Workers' Union, Coimbatore. In regard to the subject -matter of dispute. The petitioner, namely, the District Mill Workers' Union did not accept that compromise, and they made their position clear by a letter to the management on 28 -10 -1953. The workers received the bonus, agreed to be paid under the agreement referred to above, without prejudice to their rights. That this agreement was not taken by the parties or by the Industrial Tribunal as a final settlement of the claim, is clear from the fact that, after the disposal of the writ petitions, W.P. Nos. 755 and 756 of 1952, the Industrial Tribunal Set clown I. D. No. 13 of 1952 for hearing, and issued notices to various Unions, the petitioner being one of them. In response to that notice, claim statements were filed on 14 -3 -1957 by the petitioner and the other Unions, on the basis of what is now come to be known as the Full Bench, formula.
(3.) THE main reasons, on which the Industrial Tribunal rejected the claim of the petitioner for hearing of the cases arc these: (1) that the petitioner was not a party to the reference, either at the initial or subsequent stages and that no interest had been taken by them in the proceedings; (2) that the petitioner did not object to the agreement between the District Textile Workers Union and the management; (3) that that industrial dispute having been contested only by the National Textile Workers Union and that Union having settled the matter, the petitioner could not urge any independent claim; and (4) that the notice issued by the Tribunal to the petitioner could not confer a right as a party and that, therefore, the petitioner was bound by the compromise.