BALLARPUR INDUSTRIES LTD Vs. PRESIDING OFFICER LABOUR COURT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WHAT is challenged in this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution is the award of the Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Ambala whereby he directed the re-instatement of respondent No. 2 with continuity of service but without back-wages.

(2.) SHRI S. K. Grover (for short 'the workman') was employed on November 11, 1983 by the petitioner-Company as a Junior Officer Trainee at its Shree Gopal Unit at Yamuna Nagar on a probation for two years. It is alleged that he mis-conducted himself during the probationary period as a result whereof his services were terminated on April 9, 1986. This termination gave rise to an industrial dispute between the parties which was referred for adjudication to the Presiding Officer, Labour Court, Ambala under Section 10 (1) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (hereinafter called the Act ). On receipt of the reference, the Labour Court issued the usual notices to the parties who appeared and filed their respective statements of claim. The management later moved an application for the amendment of its written statement with a view to plead the existence of a settlement dated January 18, 1985 between the petitioner-Company and its workmen which was stated to have been arrived at in the course of conciliation proceedings under Section 12 (3) of the Act. The amendment was allowed and the pleadings of the parties gave rise to the following issues:

(3.) THE first preliminary objection taken by the management in its amended written statement was with regard to a subsisting settlement dated January 18, 1985 under Section 12 (3) of the Act which laid down the procedure for the settlement of individual disputes and since that procedure had not been followed, the reference made to the Labour Court was challenged as not legally tenable and bad in law. The workman filed a replication to the amended written statement and his reply to the first preliminary objection was as under:- "a) That the settlement dated January 18, 1985 was executed by the Management with two workers' Union, namely, Shree Gopal Paper Mill Labour Union (Regd.), Yamuna Nagar and Shree Gopal Karamchari Union (Regd.), Yamuna Nagar and the workman/plaintiff is neither the member of these Unions nor he has got anything to do with the affairs of the said Unions. The workman/plaintiff was never a signatory to the Charter of Demands dated July 26, 1984 raised by the above two unions which led to the formation of the alleged settlement dated January 18, 1985. " From the aforesaid reply filed by the workman before the Tribunal it is clear that he did not dispute the existence of a settlement as alleged by the management. All that he contended was that the said settlement was not binding on him as he was neither a member of either of the unions with which the settlement was signed nor was he a signatory to the charter of demands that led to the signing of the settlement. The Labour Court after recording evidence of the parties held that the services of the workman had been terminated for some alleged misconduct on his part but since the management had not served him with any charge sheet nor held any enquiry against him, the principles of natural justice stood violated. It was further held that even though the management alleged that his work was not satisfactory during the period of probation yet nothing was placed on the record to show that it was so and, therefore, the order of termination was not valid. Issue No. 1 was decided against the management Under issue No. 1 -A the Labour Court recorded a finding that the settlement dated January 18, 1985 did exist between the management and the workers through their unions but since the order of termination was being set aside for non-compliance with the principles of natural justice, the settlement relied upon by the management was of no effect. The other issues were not pressed before the Labour Court and consequently, the management was directed to reinstate the workman with continuity of service but without back wages.