P N GULATI Vs. LABOUR OURT GORAKHPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution petitioner Dr. P. N. Gulati seeks to challenge the validity of an award under the Industrial Disputes Act, made by the Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Gorakhpur, on 30 August 1972.

(2.) State of Uttar Pradesh, vide its notification, dated 25 November 1970, referred the following dispute between the employers, i. e., Swadeshi Cotton Mills Company, Ltd., Naini Allahabad, (respondent 2), and their employee Dr. P. N. Gulati, for adjudication, to the Labour Court, Allahabad: Whether the employers have validly and properly terminated the service of their workman, Dr. P. N. Gulati, with effect from 30 August 1969 ? if not, to what benefit or compensation is the concerned medical officer entitled to ? "

(3.) Subsequently the reference was transferred to the Labour Court, Gorakhpur, and in due course both the employer and the em pleyee filed their respective written statements before that Court. The employers claimed that Dr. P. N. Gulati had been employed by them as a part-time medicial officer. The letter of appointment envisaged that his appointment was terminable on one month's notice by either side. The management received a large number of complaints against Dr. Gulati which showed that the workers hed lost confidence in him. In the cirjcumstances,- it was not possible to continue his employment any further and his services were determined in accordance with the stipulation contained in his appointment letter. The employer further claimed that Dr. Gulati, not being a workman as denned in the Industrial Disputes Act, the dispute raised by him was not an industrial dispute and the State Government had no jurisdiction to refer the same for adjudication to the Labour Court.