GANDHARBA BHOI Vs. STEEL AUTHORITY OF INDIA LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner, an employee under the Steel Authority of India, was removed from the service by order, dated 3 August, 1976. He raised an industrial dispute challenging the illegal order of termination and demanded reinstatement with backwages. The Labour Officer who is also the Conciliation Officer submitted a failure report to the State Government. The State Government by order, dated 22 August 1978, has communicated to the petitioner that there is no case for reference of the dispute for adjudication as the service has been terminated in pursuance of the certified standing orders of the company. This order of the State Government has been annexed as Annexure 5 to the writ petition. The petitioner impugns the said order in the present writ application.

(2.) SRI Mohanty, the learned counsel for the petitioner, contends that Sub-section (5) of Section 12 of the Industrial Disputes Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) makes it obligatory for the State Government to record and communicate the reasons for non-reference and the so-called reason indicated in Annexure 5 must be held in the eye of law to be no reason at all or that it tantamounts to adjudication therefore, it must be held that the State Government acted on extraneous and irrelevant grounds or grounds not germane to the determination and accordingly a writ of mandamus would lie calling upon the Government to reconsider its decision.

(3.) THE learned Standing Counsel appearing for the State Government, on the other hand, contends that the power which the State Government exercises under Section 10 (1)read with Section 12 of the Act is administrative in nature and confers wide discretion on the State Government either to make reference or to refuse it. If the State Government exercises that power bona fide, then the decision of the State Government is not amenable to the writ jurisdiction of this Court.