A S KASINATHAN Vs. MADRAS DOCK LABOUR BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein was working as a tally clerk in the Madras Dock Labour Board from 1961. In 1971 he was made the President of the Tamil Nadu Port Trust and Dock Labour Board Dressed Classes Workers' League (sangam) registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926. On 17th February, 1972, a charge memo was workers to stop work and to indulge in an illegal strike. Based on those charges, the Labour Officer initiated a domestic enquiry and found him guilty of the said charges. The Deputy Chairman of the Dock Labour Board thereafter dismissed him from service by order, dated 19th April, 1972. Subsequently, the petitioner filed Writ Petition No. 1347 of 1972, questioning the order of dismissal from service. The writ petition having been dismissed, he filed Writ Appeal No. 203 of 1974. The writ appeal was also dismissed and all the grounds of attack put forward by the petitioner against the order of dismissal were rejected.

(2.) Subsequently, the petitioner raised an industrial dispute as regards his dismissal from service, and the Ministry of Labour, Government of India, referred the following questions to the Industrial Tribunal by an order, dated 4th March, 1980 :

(3.) Before the Industrial Tribunal, the management contended that the Dock Labour Board is not an industry under S. 2(j) of the Industrial Disputes Act, that the dispute referred to was barred by res judicata in view of the orders passed by this Court in the writ petition as well as in the writ appeal, and that even if the dispute is not barred by res judicata, the dismissal of the petitioner from service was justified on merits. The Tribunal rejected the reference, upholding the said contentions of the management.