MODELLA KNITWEAR LIMITED Vs. RAM LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this writ petition the petitioner which is a firm, is seeking the relief of quashing the award passed by the Labour Court, Ludhiana dated 12th May, 1982 (Annexure P-8) by issuing a writ of Certiorari under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) ACCORDING to the respondents 1 and 2, they were employed in the petitioner's firm and their services were illegally terminated on 13. 2. 1980 without any inquiry or payment of retrenchment compensation. As the provisions of the Industrial Dispute Act were not followed, the orders of termination were illegal. They raised an industrial dispute under the Act which was referred to the Labour Court for adjudication. The petitioner's firm took the plea before the Labour Court that the respondents 1 and 2 were not the employees of the petitioner's firm but they were doing work on contract basis and they used to do the work of taking material from the petitioner's firm and the respondents 1 and 2 were being paid for the services rendered on the bills submitted by them and there was no control or supervision over them and, therefore, they are not workmen and the provisions of the Industrial Dispute Act are not attracted. On a consideration of the material placed before, the Labour Court came to the conclusion that the respondents 1 and 2 are the workmen of the petitioner's firm and they are not independent contractors and their services were terminated without following the provisions of the Industrial Dispute Act and, therefore, the termination was illegal. Accordingly, the Labour Court directed the reinstatement of the workmen with continuity of service and back wages to the extent of 33%. Aggrieved by the said award, the petitioner's firm filed this writ petition.

(3.) IN Silver Jubilee Tailoring House v. Chief Inspector of Shops, AIR 1974 SC 37, the Supreme Court held that there was a relationship of master and servant because of a right in the employer to reject the work done and it reiterated that the degree of control and supervision would be different in different kinds of work. In P. M. Patel and sons and Ors. v. Union of India and Ors. etc. , AIR 1987 SC 447, the Supreme Court adopted the test of rejection of defective bidies for determining whether the bidi workers were the employees of the manufacturer or the independent contractors relying on earlier decision of the Supreme Court in Mangalore Ganesh Beedi Works v. Union of India, AIr 1974 SC 1832.