P L MAYEKAR Vs. AMICHAND NARAYAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal against the decision of Coyajee J. by which he quashed an order passed by the Industrial Appellate Tribunal, and he came to make the order under the following circumstances. Appellants 1 and 2 were employees of respondent 1 and they were dismissed prior to 1952. Certain demands were put forward by the Labour Union of which the appellants were members and among the demands were reinstatement of these two dismissed employees, and the Government referred all these demands to the Industrial Court under Section 10 (1) (c), Industrial Disputes Act. On 18-6-1953, the Industrial Tribunal made an award and directed respondent 1 to reinstate the appellants from the date of their dismissal. There was an appeal to the Industrial Appellate Tribunal and on 19-1-1954, the Industrial Appel- late Tribunal confirmed the award made by the Industrial Tribunal. The employer, respondent 1, challenged this award before Coyajee J. , and his contention was that the Government had no jurisdiction to refer to the industrial Tribunal the cases of the appellants and the Industrial Tribunal had no jurisdiction to deal with those cases. Coyajee J. upheld the contention of the employer and the two dismissed employees have now come in appeal.

(2.) WHAT is argued by Mr. Gupte on behalf of the employer is that looking to the definition of "industrial dispute" and "workman", inasmuch as the appellants were dismissed prior to the reference made by Government on 16-9-1952, they did not fall within the definition of "workman" and no industrial dispute could be raised with regard to them. We will presently examine this contention, but it seems to us rather a startling submission to make that under the Industrial Disputes Act a workman who has been wrongly dismissed cannot raise an industrial dispute with regard to his wrongful dismissal. We should have thought that the very purpose of labour legislation was to prevent employers wrongfully dismissing their employees, and if they did so to confer jurisdiction upon Labour Courts to adjudicate upon the question as to whether the employee was wrongfully, dismissed or not and also to confer jurisdiction upon Labour Courts in the case of a wrongful dismissal to compel the employer either to reinstate the employee or to pay compensation. But as the argument has been seriously urged by Mr. Gupte and has been accepted by the learned Judge below, we must proceed to examine that argument.

(3.) NOW, "industrial dispute" is defined in Section 2 (k) and the definition is: