MAHARANA MILLS KAMDAR UNION Vs. N L VYAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in these five applications were employees of the Maharana Mills Ltd. at Porbundar, respondent No. 2, to whom I will hereinafter refer to as 'the respondent'. In 1954-55 there were disputes between the respondent and its workmen represented by Maharana Mill Majoor Mahajan Sangh. Three references were then made by the Saurashtra Government under S, 10 of the Industrial Disputes Act to the Industrial Tribunal. These were References No. 47 of 1954, 91 of 1955 and 102 of 1956. During the pendency of these refrerences before the Industrial Tribunal the parties arrived at a settlement, by which they agreed to refer the disputes between them to private arbitration. On 8th Jue 1956 an application signed on behalf of both the parties, that is to say, the respondent and the workmen represented by Maharana Mill Majoor Mahajan Sangh, was made to the Industrial Tribunal in each of the three cases pending before it. In this application it was stated that the parties to the disputes had agreed "to settle all matters by private negotiatiibs and/or arbitration as per agreement" attached to the application and they requested the Tribunal "to grant permission to withdraw all the cases without the same being dismissed". The agreement annexed to the application was in the following terms :

(2.) The petitioners in these five applications were dismissed between 14th June 1956 and 16th June 1956 on different charges of abusing and asssaulting the officers of the Mills, of damaging property belonging to the Mills and for refusing to perform their normal duties by adopting go-slow Indeustrial Tribunal under S. 33-A of the Act by the petitioners, in which they contended that as they had been dismissed within one month from the date of the publication of the awards i.e. 13th June 1956, there had been a contravnetion of the provisions of S. 33 of the Act. They therefore prayed for orders directing their reinstatement and the payment to them of wages from the dates of their dismissal.

(3.) The respondent resisted the applications made by the petitioners on various grounds. It was contended that as the Industrial Tribunal had allowed the parties to withdraw the references pending before it, it could not make any awards. Even though the orders made by it were termed as awards, they were not awards within the meaning of the Act. As they were not awards, they were not required to be published and the question of their enforceability did not arise. It was, therrefore, urged that S. 22(3) did not apply and that the proceedings before the Tribunal had terminated on the dates on which the Tribunal had orders allowing the disputes to be withdrawn. The references made by Government to the Tribunal were in respect of disputes between the respondent and its workmen respresented by the Maharana Mill Majoor Mahajan Sangh. They belong to a rival union. It also appears that after the references had been made to the Industrial Tribunal, the Tribunal had not issued general notices to all the persons employed in the Mills. It was therefore contended on behalf of the respondent that the petitioners were not parties to or concerned in the disputes referred to the Tribunal or bound by the awards made by the Tribunal. Bothe these contentions were accepted by the Industrial Tribuna, which accordingly dismissed the applications made by the petitioners. The orders made by the Tribunal dismissing the applications of the petitioners have been challenged in these five special civil applications.