KANDAN TEXTILE LTD Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL (1)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application is made by the Kandan Textiles Ltd., for the issue of a writ of certiorari to call for the records in the matter of the industrial dispute between the workers and the management of the Kandan Textiles Ltd., before the Industrial Tribunal 1, Madras and the award therein dated 23 -5 -1949 and to quash the same.

(2.) THE applicant company is the proprietor of a small weaving mill located in Tiruvottiyur, Madras, employing 60 looms and about 200 workers. On 21 -1 -1948, one R.M. Sundaram, one of the workmen in the mill was dismissed by the management on the ground that he was responsible for the loss of a flexible shaft. He made attempts through the Labour Conciliation Officer to get himself reinstated but did not succeed in his attempt. On 23 -8 -1948 the boiler in the mills broke down and the mills were closed from 24 -8 -1948 till 11 -10 -1948. On the intervention of the Labour Authorities, 14 days' wages were paid to practically all the workers. On 12 -10 -1948 the mill re -opened. Most of the workmen who had been working in the mill on the date of the closure were taken in, but 48 of them were left out. The mills were not working at their full strength of three shifts. On 28 -10 -1948 the management put up a notice of having a third shift on and from 3 -11 -1948. On 13 -11 -1948, 21 of the workers who had been left out resumed duty. They were asked by the manager of the mills to work on looms other than those which had been allotted to them prior to the closure of the mills, but they declined to do so, and thereupon the manager asked them to leave the mills. A notice was put up at the mills informing the workers that their services were dispensed with as they had refused to accept the allocation of looms made by the manager. On 20 -11 -1948 seven more workers of whom one was a jobber and the rest were weavers were called back to duty and new looms were allotted to the six weavers. They too declined to work on the new looms and were dismissed. Six of the weavers who had been in service of the mills before the boiler broke down were not called back at all. Two of the workmen who had been jobbers before the closure were entertained again not as jobbers but only as weavers.

(3.) THE president of the union appears to have been addressing letters to the Commissioner of Labour from time to time, bat it was admitted by its counsel appearing before us that the union never addressed any communication to the management complaining against any action on their part. On 4 -12 -1948 the president of this union addressed a letter to the Secretary to the Government (EX. Y) giving a list of disputes existing between the management and the workers of the mills praying for a reference to a Tribunal under the Industrial Disputes Act (XIV [14] of 1947). On 8 -12 -1948 the Governmentof Madras passed an order directing the Indus. trial Tribunal having its place of residence at Madras to adjudicate on an industrial dispute between the workers and the management of the Kandan Textiles Ltd. in respect of 11 matters mentioned in an annexure to the order. The material portion of the order is as follows: 'The Commissioner of Labour, Madras, has reported that an industrial dispute has arisen between the workers and the managements of the Kandan Textiles Ltd Madras, in respect of the matters mentioned in the annexure, that the parties to the dispute are unable to arrive at an amicable settlement and recommends that the dispute may be referred to the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, for adjudication under Section 10(1)(c), Industrial Disputes Act, 1947.' The annexure contained the following eleven items :