GLOBE THEATRES PRIVATE LTD Vs. LABOUR COURT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in this writ petition is the management of the Globe Theatres (Private), Ltd. , Madras. Respondent 1 is the presiding officer, labour court, Madras, and respondent 3, the workmen employed in Globe Theater (Private), Ltd. , represented by the Secretary the South India Cinema Employees' Association, Madras. The prayer in the writ petition is for the issue of a writ of certiorari or other appropriate writ, under Article 276 of the Constitution, quashing the award made by respondent 1 in industrial Dispute No. 10 of 1962. On the initiative of respondent 2 a reference was made to the labour court, under Section 10 (1) of the industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (14 of 1947) (hereinafter called the Act), for adjudication on the following points:

(2.) WE are not now concerned with the second worker T. M. K. Swami, as he subsequently entered into a settlement with the management. At the time when the dispute arose, the aforesaid workmen were employed in different posts in a cinema theatre of the name New Globe Theatres, situated in Mount Road. Madras and of which the proprietor was Globe Talkies (Private), Ltd. , the petitioner herein. The petitioner was also exhibiting films in another theatre in Purasawakkam, Madras, known as Roxy Talkies. The theatre New Globe Talkies, belonged to one Varadaraja Pillai from whom the petitioner had taken a lease of it. Varadaraja Pilial by filing a suit succeeded in obtaining possession of the theatre premises from the petitioner and consequently, the petitioner had to close down the exhibition of pictures in Globe Theatres. But the petitioner continued to exhibit pictures as before in Roxy Taikies at Purasawakkam. When the New Globe Theatre was closed, the petitioner gave a notice to about 32 persons and offered closure compensation under Section 25fff of the Act to them. All except five accepted that compensation. But the five persons mentioned in the reference to the present adjudication, refused to accept closure compensation and they claimed the right to be absorbed in Roxy Talkies on the basis of the rule set out in Section 26g of the Act, a rule compendiously described as the "last come, first go " rule. That section is in the following terms; 25g. Procedure for retrenchment.-Where any workman in an industrial establishment, who is a citizen of India, is to be retrenched and he belongs to a particular category of workmen in that establishment, in the absence of any agreement between the employer and the workman in this behalf, the employer shell ordinarily retrench the workmen who was the last person to be employed in that category, unless for reasons to be recorded the employer retrenches any other workman. The claim of the workers was that both the Roxy Talkies and the New Globe Theatre constituted a single industrial establishment of the petitioner-management, and that on the closure of the New Globe Theatre, there was room to absorb them in similar categories in the Roxy Talkies after discharging later recruits employed there on the basis of the "last come, first go " rule. This claim was resisted by the management, and they urged that the two establishments in Roxy and New Globe Theatres were different, and that the workers mentioned above were not entitled to the benefit of the rule in Section 25g of the Act. However, the labour court upheld the claim of the workers, and directed the petitioner to reinstate the workers concerned in the reference, except T. N. K. Swami, in Roxy Tackies with back-wages. The petitioner-management has attacked that finding of the labour court in this writ petition.

(3.) I am of the opinion that there were adequate data which justified the finding of the labour court, in the light of the relevant principles laid down by various decisions for guidance, when a question of the application of the rule in Section 25g of the Act arises in an industrial dispute. The relevant principles which can be gathered from the several decisions can be summarized in the following way: