SHILLONG MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATION Vs. STATE OF MEGHALAYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present writ petition has been filed for the following prayer.

(2.) As the Shillong Municipal Board (Gratuity) Rules, 1980 is challenged, the writ petition is listed before Division Bench. The case of the petitioner is that the petitioner's Union is registered with the Registrar of Society, Shillong and is affiliated to the Indian National Trade Union Congress bearing registration No.63/1986. According to the petitioner, the workers through all Assam Civic Bodies Workers' Federation raised an industrial dispute when it was in the composite State of Assam and the dispute was referred to the Industrial Tribunal at Guwahati for adjudication and the same was taken up for hearing as Reference No.21 of 1969. The following issues were referred for adjudication:

(3.) During the pendency of the dispute before the Tribunal, there was a settlement arrived at between the parties with regard to all the issues that were referred to for adjudication including gratuity, the Tribunal had rendered an award on 23/8/1971 which was published in the Assam Gazette on 1/9/1971. While passing an award, the Tribunal has recorded the settlement in the award and for the sake of convenience, the gratuity payable to the employee is based on one month's pay on the basis of last drawn pay should be granted for each completed year of service and the relevant clause is extracted below: