PAPPAMMAL ANNACHATRAM Vs. PRESIDING OFFICER LABOUR COURT MADURAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition for issue of a writ of certiorari or any other appropriate direction raises an interesting question as to whether an Anna Chatram constituting a public charitable endowment the object of which is to feed poor desantris and afford free boarding and lodging to poor students by utilising the income from the endowed properties, is an industry within the definition of the term under the Industrial disputes Act, 1947. On 14-10-1957, the trustees of the Chatram framed against the third respondent certain charges relating to alleged acts of misfeasance and misconduct on his part and called upon him to submit his explanation within 24 hours. The third respondent submitted his explanation the next day denying the charges. After considering the explanation, the trustee passed an order dated 18th october 1957, terminating the services of the third respondent with immediate effect and directed that he be paid, in lieu of notice, one month's pay. The third respondent's appeal to a Board of Supervision failed. Thereupon, the Tiruchi Hotel worker's Union, of which he was a member took up his cause before the Labour court for conciliation. As no settlement was reached, by their order dated 28th august 1959 under Section 19 (1) (c) of the Industrial Disputes Act, the State government referred to the Labour court Madurai, for adjudication the question whether the discharge of the third respondent was justified and to what relief he was entitled. The third respondent claimed that he had served the Chatram as a clerk without any blemish for a period of 7 years and 7 months till the date of his discharges, that the discharge was illegal and unjust as a case of victimisation, and that there was also no proper and fair enquiry conducted by the trustee into the charges. The trustee denied the jurisdiction of the labour court to proceed with the reference on the ground that the chatram was not an industry within the meaning of Section 2 (j) of the Act and stated that, in any case, the discharge was justified. The labour court, by its award dated 17th October 1959 overruled both the objections and found that there had been violation of the principles of natural justice inasmuch as the trustee gave the third respondent no reasonable or fair opportunity to submit his explanation, took no evidence to substantiate some of the charges and conducted no enquiry in respect of certain other charges. The labour court, therefore, set aside the order of discharge and directed reinstatement with 50 per cent of the back wages. It is this award which is now sought to be quashed. The tiruchi District Hotel Workers Union represented by its secretary which figured as a party to the industrial dispute for adjudication before the labour court is the second respondent in this petition.

(2.) IN support of this petition, it is urged (1) that the Chatram is not an industry and the dispute raised by the third respondent is not an industrial dispute within the meaning of the Act, (2) that, in any event, the dispute is an individual and not a collective dispute and (3) that the Labour court was in error in holding that the order of discharge was violative of the principles of natural justice. The first ground involves the determination of a fine and difficult question. The facts relevant to it are not in dispute. The Pappammal Anna Chatram is a public charitable endowment founded for the purpose of feeding poor desantris which was later extended to boarding and lodging poor students out of the income from the endowed properties. At the time of the reference of the dispute for adjudication there were about 225 students in the hostel built for the purpose in 1956 form the funds of the Chatram. No fee is charged, no food is sold and no service or amenities are paid for the Chatram. The Chatram is, therefore, a place where form the income from the properties endowed, poor people are given free food and poor students both lodging and boarding free. Under a scheme of management settled by court in about 1922 a descendant of the founder is to be appointed as a trustee and there is to be also a Board of supervision consisting of three members. The establishment of the Chatram, at the time when the third respondent was discharged, consisted of three clerks, namely, M. Sivaswami the third respondent. Sadasivam and Murugesa Pillai, three cooks and a watchman. Of these persons, only the third respondent was a member of the Tiruchi District Hotel Workers' union. On these facts, the contention for the petitioner is that the Chatram has been founded by a private individual out of a charitable intention and humanitarian objective, that it involves no business commercial or trading enterprise and is totally free from profit motive, that there is non investment of capital or production of wealth or other material goods by the Chatram, that there is no question of any co-operation between the trustee and the other employees of the chatram as in an industry and that in the absence of such attributes the Chatram cannot be regarded as 'an industry' within the meaning of the Act.

(3.) IN dealing with the first ground, certain general observations touching the progressive aspects of socio-economic relations in the context of the current trends in industrial adjudication will have to be borne in mind. It has to be recognised in an ever increasing measure that employees, whether skilled or unskilled, should social and economic justice an should to achieve that purpose, have not merely wages but living wages a legitimate and reasonable share in the creative result produced in co-operation with their toil and application, better terms and conditions of employment in relation to their general welfare and well being and that, above all, industrial peace and harmony should be maintained and promoted for attaining the desired economic progress and general good of the country. One of the avowed resolves, which the preamble to the Constitution resolves, which the preamble to the Constitution proclaims is to secure to all citizens in this country social, economic and political justice. This lofty ideal also finds expression in the directive principles contained in Part IV of the Constitution, particularly Articles 39 and 43 which state that the citizens men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood and that the State shall endeavor to secure by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers, agricultural, industrial or otherwise work, a living wage condition of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities. These ideas have certainly influenced the trend of and approach to industrial problems and industrial adjudications by tribunals and labour courts in this country, more especially since 1950. It is but right and necessary, therefore, that notice is taken, from time to time, of the changing concepts, modified out look and liberal approach in settlement or adjudication of labour disputes in this or other progressive countries of the world. It is in this background an industry in modern times on longer merely conveys the old limited concept of the term but has come to be understood in a remarkably wide sense including within its ambit a variety of activities which are far from being commercial or directed or designed to produce wealth or goods.