RALLIS GROUP EMPLOYEES Vs. RALLIS INDIA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) RULE. Returnable forthwith. Respondents waive service. By consent taken up for hearing and final disposal.

(2.) THE writ petition is directed against an interim order passed by the Industrial Court on april 27, 2001, by which an application for the grant of relief by the Union came to be rejected. The dispute between the parties arises out of an agreement dated February 12, 2001, which was entered into by the First Respondent with the fifth Respondent to these proceedings. By and under the terms of the Agreement, the First respondent has agreed to sell to the Fifth respondent, the whole of its Pharmaceutical business Undertaking as a going concern for an aggregate consideration of Rs. 49 crores. The Pharmaceutical Business Undertaking is defined in clause (1) of the recitals to the agreement as follows:

(3.) THE dispute in the present case that has been espoused by the Petitioner is on behalf of 106 employees who apprehend that upon the transfer of the Pharmaceutical Business undertaking, the services of these workmen would be transferred from the pay roll of the first Respondent to the pay roll of the Fifth respondent upon which they would cease to be the employees of the First Respondent. The apprehension of the workmen is set out in para 1 (xii) and para J of the Complaint which has been filed before the Industrial Court, under items 5, 9 and 10 of Schedule IV to the maharashtra Recognition of Trade Unions and prevention of Unfair Labour Practices Act, 1971. In sum and substance therefore, the grievance of the workmen is that upon the transfer of the Undertaking, the services of the workmen would be transferred to the Fifth respondent and that in the event, that the workmen do not consent to the transfer, their services would come to an end. The Industrial court has rejected the application for interim relief holding, inter alia, that the pharmaceutical Division of the Company was an independent establishment and that the workmen are sufficiently protected by the provisions of Section 25-FF of the Industrial disputes Act, 1947.