SOUTH ARCOT ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION CO Vs. ELUMALAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE questions for determination in all these writ petitions are the same, and, I shall therefore, deal with them together.

(2.) WITH effect from 1-6-1957, the Government of Madras took over the undertaking of the South Arcot Electricity Distribution Company Ltd. They did so in exercise of the powers conferred on them by Madras Act XXIX of 1954. One consequence of this taking over, was that by virtue of Section 6 of the Act all the properties of the company and all its rights, liabilities and obligations as on the vesting date, subject to certain provisos, vested in the Government. Sometime after they took over the undertaking the Government transferred it to the Madras state Electricity Board. The taking over of the undertaking of the company by the Government had another consequence which was probably not anticipated. Section 25-FF of the industrial Disputes Act, as it stood in 1956, that is to say, before it was amended by Central Act 18 of 1957, provided that no workman would be entitled to compensation by reason merely of the fact that there had been a change of employers in any case where the ownership or management of the undertaking in which he was employed was transferred, whether by agreement or by operation of law from one employer to another, provided certain conditions referred to later on in the section were satisfied. Central Act 18 of 1957 recast the section and provides in positive terms that where the ownership or management of an undertaking is transferred, whether by agreement or by operation of law, from one employer to another, every workman who had a continuous service of not less than one year shall be entitled to notice and compensation as if he had been retrenched, unless certain conditions are satisfied. A large number of the employees of the undertaking which the government took over, from the S. A. E. D. Co. Ltd. considered that they were entitled to retrenchment compensation and certain other benefits referred to in section 25 of the Industrial Disputes Act, and, to enforce their claims they filed petitions before the Labour Court, Madras. To these proceedings the South Arcot electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. , the State of Madras and the Madras State electricity Board were made parties.

(3.) BEFORE the Labour Court, the Company, the Government and the Electricity board, took the preliminary objection that the labour court had no jurisdiction to enquire into the claims. By an order pronounced on 3-10-1958, the Labour Court overruled the objection and posted the petitions for further inquiry. The present writ petitions have been filed to quash this order of the labour court.