AIR INDIA EMPLOYEES GUILD Vs. AIR INDIA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) A learned Division Bench of this court while hearing the above petitions, doubted the correctness of the view taken in Oil and Natural Gas Commission Karmachari Sanghatana Versus Ministry of Petroleum and Ors. in Writ Petition No.1785 of 1997 and also found other contentions urged before it were of great importance and arose in a number of matters and accordingly referred these matters for consideration to a larger Bench. The questions of law formulated and referred for our consideration are as under :

(2.) The Petitioner in Writ Petition No. 2544 of 2004 is a trade union registered under the Trade Unions Act, 1926 and presently is the sole recognized trade union for the ground category staff employed with Air India which claims membership of more than 10,000 or over 70% of the total employees. It has its registered office at Santacruz, Mumbai. They have filed the petition to challenge the decision of Respondent No. 2 to hold elections by secret ballot to verify the membership of the technical and non technical ground category staff in Air India. The Petitioners oppose the holding of a secret ballot for the purpose of verification of the membership being contrary to the Code of Discipline governing the industry.

(3.) The Chief Labour Commissioner (Central), New Delhi had informed the Regional Labour Commissioner (Central) Mumbai that the Ministry had decided to undertake verification of membership of unions operating in Air India. The Regional Commissioner was called upon to undertake verification of membership of unions operating in Air India and provide amongst others: