VISAKHAPATNAM URBAN DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY Vs. KEMBURI GOWRI NAIDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this batch of writ petitions, the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (for short 'the VUDA'), the petitioner, challenges the award passed by the Labour Court, Visakhapatnam, in various Industrial Disputes, directing reinstatement of the workmen.The respective employees are impleaded as respondent No.1 in the concerned writ petitions and for the sake of convenience; they are referred to as the workmen.

(2.) The workmen raised Industrial Disputes before the Labour Court, the 2nd respondent, contending that they have been engaged as NMRs by the petitioner at various point of time, they have been discharging their functions that were assigned to them from time to time and that their services have been orally terminated without complying with the provisions of Section 25F of the Industrial Disputes Act (for short 'the Act').

(3.) The petitioner resisted the Industrial Disputes on two grounds. Firstly, it was contended that the petitioner is not an industry as defined under the Act and, as such, it is not required to comply with the procedure under section 25F of the Act for discontinuing an employee. The second contention was that the work for which the workmen were engaged was occasional and temporary in nature and it was not at all feasible to continue them irrespective of the fact whether they are workmen or not. The second respondent repelled both the contentions. It found that the petitioner is an industry as defined under the Act and, therefore, the services of the workmen could not have been terminated except complying with the provisions of Section 25F of the Act.