RAMAN NAMBISAN P Vs. MADRAS STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN all these throe writ petitions the main question that is raised is whether the order of the Madras State Electricity Board directing the petitioners to retire at the age of 55 is Illegal and unsustainable in law. As the main question involved in all these three petitions is the same, these three writ petitions may be dealt with together.

(2.) THE Madras State Electricity Board is a body corporate constituted under the provisions of the Electricity Supply Act of 1948 (Central Act) and was incorporated with effect from 1 July 1957. The Madras State Electricity Board is empowered to frame regulations in regard to the duties of officers and servants of the Board and their salaries, allowances and other conditions of service by virtue of Section 79 (c) of the Act. The Board has not framed any regulations, but by way of transitory regulations, it directed that the provisions of Fundamental Rules which govern the service conditions in regard to certain matters of Government servants would also govern the members of the clerical staff. According to the Fundamental Rules the age of superannuation is fixed at 55 years.

(3.) THE Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, came into force on 23 April 1946. The object of the enactment as seen from the preamble is that it was found expedient to require employers in industrial establishments to define with sufficient precision the conditions of employment under them and to make the said conditions known to workmen employed by them. The Act is applicable to all industrial establishments wherein 100 or more workmen are employed. It la not. disputed that the State Electricity Board is an industrial establishment, to which the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, is applicable. Section 3 of the Act requires that within six months from the date on which the Act became applicable to an industrial establishment, the employer shall submit to the certifying officer draft standing orders proposed by him for adoption in his industrial establishment. On receipts of the draft standing orders the certifying officer, after following the procedure prescribed shall certify the draft standing orders and on such certification the standing orders will be binding on the industrial establishment as well as the workmen. It is stated that the Board has submitted draft standing orders but they have not yet been certified. Pending certification of the standing orders, provision is made under Section 12a of the Act for adopting the model standing orders in the establishment. Section 12a. provides that for the period commencing on the date on which the Act became applicable to an industrial establishment and ending with the date on which the standing orders as finally certified under the Act come into operation under Section 7 in that establishment, the prescribed model standing orders shall be deemed to be adopted in that establishment. Section 15 (b) of the Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946, empowers the Government to frame rules setting out model standing orders for the purpose of the Act. In pursuance of the rule-making powers, the State Government have framed model standing orders applicable to workmen. Standing order 21 of the model standing orders provides that every workman shall retire on attaining the age of 58 years.