LEONARD BIERMANS WORKERS UNION Vs. SECOND INDUSTRIAL TRIBUNAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An industrial dispute between Messrs. Leonard Biermann (hereinafter referred to as the company) and their workers was referred to the Second Industrial Tribunal, by an order dated August 5, 1959. The scope of the dispute was the demand by the workers for introduction of a scheme for payment of gratuity. The Tribunal came to the conclusion that the company was running at a loss for the last few years and was not in a position to hear the burden of gratuity. In that view of the matter the workers' claim for gratuity was rejected find the Tribunal passed an award accordingly. The award was published, under Section 17 of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947, under a notification, dated July 23, 1960.

(2.) The propriety of the award is being disputed in this Rule, at the instance of the Workers' Union.

(3.) A single point was argued for my consideration in this Rule. It was contended that the Balance Sheets of the company, on the basis of which, the Tribunal came to the conclusion about the financial incompetency of the company, were inadmissible in evidence, alternatively that they did not contain true statements about the economic position of the company and should not have been relied upon, particularly after the company had failed to produce their books of account on the basis whereof the Balance Sheets-were purported to have been prepared.