AERON STEEL ROLLING MILLS Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE industrial dispute between the Aeron Steel Rolling Mills, Jullundur City, and its workmen was referred to the Second Industrial Tribunal on 10-3-1956. This reference was still pending when the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, was amended by the Industrial Disputes (Amendment and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1956 (Act XXXVI of 1956 ). The Amending Act came into force on 28-8-1950 and introduced a new Section 33-B which gave the Government power to transfer certain proceedings from one Tribunal to another. Acting under this new section the Government by Order dated 31-10-1957, withdrew all cases then pending before the Second Tribunal and transferred them all to the Industrial Tribunal, Punjab, constituted by notification dated 4-6-1957 under the Act as it stood after its amendment in 1956. The petitioning mill feels aggrieved at this transfer and has filed this petition under Article 226 of the constitution challenging the validity of the order of transfer.

(2.) THE order of the Government reads:

(3.) NOW, there was no specific provision permitting a reference from one Tribunal to another Tribunal in the 1947 Act and yet the Supreme Court in Minerva Mills ltd. Bangalore v. Workers of the Minerva Mills, AIR 1953 SC 505, held that the government could withdraw the dispute referred to a Tribunal and refer it to another Tribunal. This is all that has been done in the present case. It is true that in that case it was left open to the new Tribunal to start proceedings dp novo, but that circumstance does not affect the power of the Government to withdraw the case from one Tribunal and refer it to another Tribunal. After the amendment of the Act this power has been specifically given to the government under Section 33-B, although in Section 30, it has been left open to the Government to leave the case with the old Tribunal and not to transfer it. In the present case, the Government has chosen to transfer the cases to a Tribunal constituted in accordance with the provisions of Section 7-A of the Act, but in the order it has given no reason for adopting this course.