N N RAO Vs. GREAVES COTTON AND CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This special civil application is directed against an order passed by the Industrial Tribunal under S. 33(3) of the Industrial Disputes Act granting permission to Messrs. Greaves Cotton & Co. Limited the employer to dismiss the petitioner N. N. Rao. The petitioner was a clerk serving in the respondent-company. He holds a B.Com. Degree. The ground upon which permission was sought was that the petitioner had during a strike prevented another worker one K. G. Naik from going to work in the 'cone plant' of the company on Sayani Road, Dadar, Bombay at about 7 a.m. on 13th March, 1967.

(2.) The workmen of the company went on strike in the works of the company and its allied concerns on 13th March, 1967. One K. G. Naik who was willing to work was proceeding towards the cone plant at about 7 a.m. when it is said that the petitioner and two or three others first dissuaded him from going in, they surrounded him and abused and threatened him when he expressed a desire to proceed. A charge-sheet was served on the petitioner on the 16th of March, 1967 and one G. T. Gokhale the personnel manager was appointed the enquiry officer. After the charges were served, for a period of over three months the petitioner successfully staved off any enquiry by giving various excuses. He asked for postponements or adjournments of the enquiry on 11 occasions and ultimately the enquiry commenced on 26th June, 1967. For the purposes of this petition it is futile to recount the tortuous history of these adjournments. It is elaborately set out in the opening paragraph of the Tribunal's order from which the successful filibustering on the part of the petitioner is manifest. Meanwhile the strike itself had been called off on the 25th of May, 1967.

(3.) The enquiry officer, Gokhale, held the enquiry on the 26th of June, 1967 and on 5th, 13th and 16th of September, 1967. He made a report which was submitted to the respondent-company on the 22nd of September, 1967. On 27th September, 1967, the managing director suspended the petitioner from service with immediate effect and put in an application before the Tribunal for permission to dismiss the petitioner, as another industrial dispute was under adjudication.