MEENAKSHI PATEL Vs. ENGINEERING EXPORT PROMOTION COUNCIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS writ petition challenges the Award of the Labour Court No. 2 at Mumbai in Reference No. 472 of 1995, wherein it has been held that appropriate Government for Engineering Export Promotion Council, that is respondent No. 1 herein, is not State Government but the Central Government.

(2.) THE facts giving rise to the issue are as follows: the petitioners joined service with respondent No. 1 as clerks and were working as such till their services were terminated on 2-5-1994. According to the petitioners, their services were terminate on 2-5-1994. According to the petitioners, their services were terminated orally, without assigning any reason for the same. Legal dues of the petitioners were also not paid. The petitioners complained about their wrongful termination and submitted their respective demand for reinstatement with continuity of service and full back wages with effect from 2-5-1994. The demands were referred for adjudication by the State Government in Reference (IDA) Nos. 155, 463, 472, 473 of 1995 before the Labour Court, Mumbai. Statements of claim were filed by each of the petitioners justifying their demand. The respondent No. 1 raised a preliminary issue, common in all the references, that the Central Government being the appropriate Government, the references were not maintainable. The Labour Court decided the preliminary issue by concluding that the Central Government and not the State Government was the appropriate Government as defined under section 2 (a) of the I. D. Act, 1947.

(3.) THE short question, therefore, for determination is whether respondent No. 1 is an industry in respect of which the appropriate Government is the Central Government or the State Government.