POORANMAL KAPOORCHAND Vs. SRI KISHAN MAHESHWARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Artcile 226 of the Constitution.

(2.) The petitioner is a registered firm carrying on the business of purchasing and selling sugar on a wholesale scale, and employs three or four munims.

(3.) According to the petitioner, opposite party No, 1 had become indebted to the petitioner, and since he had no money to pay off the debt, he requested the petitioner that he be employed as a munim in the firm. He was accordingly employed on a salary of Rs. 150/- and it was agreed that opposite party would pay off his debt at the rate of Rs. 20/- p.m. Opposite party No. 1, in May 1955 himself decided to leave the service and entered as a broker in the Upper India Sugar Exchange, Kanpur. Thereafter, the petitioner received a notice dated 25-7-55 from opposite party no. 1 demanding his salary in lieu of leave. The petitioner by letter dated 28-7-55 denied all claims of the opposite party. Thereafter one Mr. Maqbool Ahmad Khan, General Secretary Transport and General Workers' Union, filed before the Regional Conciliation Officer, Kanpur, an application praying that a Conciliation Board be constituted for the settlement of the dispute specified in the application. The State Government thereafter referred the matter to Sri J. N. Srivastava, the Additional Regional Conciliation Officer, Kanpur, for adjudication. The petitioner filed a preliminary objection inter alia, taking the plea that the dispute was not an industrial dispute. Opposite party No. 1 filed a written statement and contended that it was an industrial dispute. According to the petitioner, opposite party No. 1 was not a member of any recognised union, and certainly not of the Transport and General Workers' Union, opposite party No. 2; that the petitioner was not engaged in Transport business and opposite party No. 2 could not make a common cause with the petitioner. It was further contended by the petitioner that the original order of reference was bad.