PUNJAB AGRO INDUSTRIES CORPORATION LIMITED Vs. PRESIDING OFFICER, LABOUR COURT, UNION TERRITORY, CHANDIGARH AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I. Scope of lis

(2.) The petitioner-company, which was incorporated under the Companies Act is governed by Articles of Association that lays down in Clause 119 that the business of company shall be managed by the Directors and exercise of powers and acts as authorized to exercise by its Memorandum and Article of Associations, with specific powers given to the Board of Directors under Clause 120 which empowered the Board to appoint Officers/Clerks/Servants of the company, as they may think fit from time to time and to determine the duties and powers and also fix the salary and emoluments. The conditions of service were also governed by the Standing Orders and Clause 34 of the Standing Orders empowered the Managing Director to be the Appointing and Punishing Authority and Chairman of the Corporation as the Appellate Authority. The contention of the counsel for petitioner, Sh. D.S. Patwalia, was that they required a combined and harmonious reading of the Standing Orders with Memorandum and Articles of Association and a seeming conflict that would arise by a reading is that the Standing Orders provided that the Managing Director could be the Appointing Authority but the Articles of Association provided that Board of Directors shall have the power to appoint officers and clerks and therefore, according to the petitioner it should be read in such a way that it must be understood that it is the Board of Directors, who was competent to sanction and create various posts/cadres in different pay scales and thereafter, the Managing Director shall exercise the power by making suitable appointments.

(3.) The hierarchy of various employees in the Corporation to the extent relevant for the case was that at the lowest level, it was Clerk/Fertilizers Clerk, the next higher post was Senior Clerk and a still higher category was Assistant and a promotion post to Assistant was Deputy Superintendent and above Deputy Superintendent was Manager. In a meeting held on 06.03.1984, the Board of Directors approved a proposal for restructuring of the cadre from the post of Assistant upwards. In pursuance of the decision and resolution passed thereon, new cadres were created being Executive Grade II and Executive Grade I from amongst the Assistants. The cadre Executive Grade II carried a pay scale of Rs. 700-1200/- and Executive Grade-I carried a pay scale of Rs. 800-1400/-. The office order dated 01.06.1984, issued pursuant thereto, provided that 50% of the Assistants of the Corporation were re-designated as Executive Grade I and other 50% as Executive Grade II, in the scales of pay referred to above, as per their respective seniority. Prior to the re-organization in the year 1984, all the assistants were in the pay scales of Rs. 600-1120/-. At the pre-revised scale, the Assistants' scales still carried a higher pay other than that of Clerks/Fertilizer Clerks or Senior Clerks/Fertilizer Clerks, who were in the pay scale of Rs. 400-600/- and Rs. 510-800/- respectively. It was, therefore, the contention of the petitioner that the re-organization took effect only from Assistants upwards and no decision had been taken for providing for any promotion for Clerks/Fertilizer Clerks/Senior Clerks.