OM SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE writ petition is against rejection of reference by the Government through the order issued on 25.07.1991. The petitioner workman had complained that he had been wrongly terminated from service and the defence was that the petitioner had been paid a compensation of Rs. 2177.33 at the time when the unit was closed and the compensation payable was under Section 25FF of the Industrial Disputes Act and the definition could not be taken as retrenchment under Section 25F.

(2.) AS a point of law, I may observe that it will be incompetent for a State to reject a reference under Section 10 for any ground other than the situation that the particular dispute brought by the workman was not an industrial dispute. The reference which the Government makes under Section 10 is merely an administrative order and not a judicial adjudication. This point has been dealt with by the Supreme Court in several decisions and to our purpose it will be worthwhile to refer Ram Avtar Sharma and others Vs. State of Haryana and another : (1985) 3 SCC 189 and the Secretary, Indian Tea Association Vs. Ajit Kumar Barat and others : AIR 2000 SC 915. The Supreme Court has laid down in both the decisions that the Government that passed order under Section 10 as merely exercising administrative jurisdiction and it will be concerned only with an issue of whether an industrial dispute exists or not. It cannot, however, canvass correctness of order of termination itself as justified, for that would amount to usurping a judicial function. In this case, I find that the reference has been declined on a reasoning that the retrenchment had been done in accordance with Rules and compensation had also been paid. The payment of compensation or whether the retrenchment was justified could not have been matter for the Government to decide to decline a reference. I, therefore, quash the order as inappropriate.

(3.) THE writ petition is dismissed.