MANAGEMENT BHAVANI TREADS Vs. R RAVICHANDRAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE issue as to whether an advocate represented the management in a suit could be appointed enquiry officer against the worker and the enquiry conducted by him would be vitiated on the ground of bias has arisen for consideration in this writ petition.

(2.) THE factual matrix that has occasioned in the writ petition are as follows: -The first respondent was working as a Plant Operator in the writ petitioner-Management. He was issued with a charge memo for misconduct viz. , that he absented himself from duty between 25. 1. 95 and 10. 2. 95 without availing leave and that on 10. 2. 95 he misbehaved at the office premises before the Manager and others. One Mr. C. K. Natarajan, an advocate, was appointed as enquiry officer. As the charges were held to be proved in the enquiry, the first respondent was dismissed from service by order dated 10. 6. 96. Aggrieved by the order of dismissal, the first respondent raised an industrial dispute in I. D. No. 220 of 1996 before the labour Court, Coimbatore. The issue as to whether the enquiry was conducted in a fair and proper manner by following the principles of natural justice was tried as a preliminary issue by the Labour Court. The Labour Court, by the impugned order, held that inasmuch as the said c. K. Natarajan had appeared for the management in O. S. No. 492 of 1995 on the file of District munsif, Mettupalayam and obtained an order of injunction in I. A. No. 631 of 1995 on 30. 3. 95 against the very same worker, the enquiry conducted by the enquiry officer as to the misconduct against the first respondent would not be in conformity with the principles of natural justice.

(3.) I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel for the first respondent.