JAGANNATH DEY Vs. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is praying for enforcement of the Award passed by the Central Government Industrial Tribunal in Reference No. 3 of 1996, passed on Jan. 2, 2002.

(2.) The point is very well settled that the writ jurisdiction of the Court cannot be invoked either for execution or for implementation of an Award passed by an industrial tribunal. The law has been settled about 50 years ago by a learned Judge of this Court in the case of K.M. Mukherjee Vs. Secretary and Treasurer, SBI and Others, reported in AIR 1968 Calcutta 59. The learned Judge has unambiguously held that the Award of an industrial tribunal is the decision arrived after an industrial adjudication and, therefore, cannot have more statutory force than the decree of a civil court. Both of them may be executed or otherwise employed in the manner provided in the relevant law but cannot be enforced by a writ of mandamus as an instrument having the force of law of itself.

(3.) Mr. Sanyal, learned Advocate appearing for the petitioner initially submits that the law since then has undergone a vast change and since the scope of Art. 226 of the Constitution of India is wider than issuing merely prerogative writs, there is no reason why the High Court in exercise of its power under Art. 226 should not execute an Award.