THIRU AROORAN SUGARS LTD Vs. INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner in this writ petition is the management of Thiru Arooran Sugars Ltd, Vadapathimangalam, Tanjore District. The first respondent is the Industrial Tribunal, Madras. The 2nd respondent is the secretary of the employees' union of the petitioner management. The third respondent is another labour union and there is also a third union impleaded as the 4th respondent, Arooran Sugar Factory and Farm Workers Union, Vadapathimangalam. The dispute which has to be considered for decision in this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution for the issue of a writ of certiorari arises under the following circumstances.

(2.) THE petitioner is a public limited company with a capital of rupees one crore, formed in 1954. It acquired a large area of waste land, nearly 5200 acres in extent, in Tanjore District in the neighbourhood of its sugar factory for the purpose of cultivation of sugar-cane to meet the needs of the factory for production of sugar. Sugar-cane is cultivated in the land acquired by the company as part of the activity of the company, though separately organised as a department called farm-section.

(3.) THE questions that arose for decision by the tribunal were the revision of the dearness allowance as well as the categorisation of the workers and the staff for the fixation of scales of wages. The Central Wage Board for the Sugar Industry, 1960, had given directions covering both the points. But it was assumed that the recommendation of the Central Wage Board would apply only to the employees in the factory or mill, but not to the employees in the farm section of the petitioner, which deals with the cultivation of sugar-cane on the management's extensive cultivable lands. The union of the workers in the farm section, therefore, wanted an adjudication on the two questions, (1) of revision of dearness allowance and (2) the categorisation of the staff for fixation of the scales of wages, by treating the issues as an industrial dispute. The management would not agree to the claim that the workers in the farm section were workers employed in an industry, to whom the provisions of the Industrial Disputes Act would apply. This dispute was referred by the State Government under Section 10 (1) of the Industrial Disputes Act to the Industrial Tribunal, Madras, for adjudication. That tribunal numbered the reference as Industrial Dispute No. 21 of 1963 and passed an award on 31st December, 1963.